H.NORTHRUP 


t- 


/ 


LIFE 


OF 


Samuel  Sullivan  Cox, 


BY  HIS  NEPHEW, 

WILLIAM  VAN  ZANDT  COX, 

AND  HIS  FRIEND, 

MILTON  HARLOW  NORTHRUP. 


With  Illustrations. 


M.  H.  NORTHRUP,  PUBLISHER, 

SYRACUSE,  N.  Y. 

J899. 


COPYRIGHT  1898. 


To  the 
Employes  of  the  Postal  Service 

and  of  the 

Life  Saving  Service 

this  biography  of  their  champion 

is  respectfully  inscribed. 


M188312 


PREFACE. 


Samuel  Sullivan  Cox  occupies  an  unique  place 
in  American  history.      Precisely  his  parallel  has 
not  been  known.      As  was  well  said  by  Dr.  Tal- 
mage,  at  his  obsequies:      "It  will  be  useless  to  try 
to  describe  to  another  generation  who  or  what  he 
was  like.      He  was  the  first  and  the  last  of  that 
kind  of  man."     His  distinguishing  characteristic 
was  his  versatility — his  many-sidedness.      He  had 
a  marvelous  faculty  of  adaptation.      It  is  difficult 
to  conceive  of  an  emergency  to  which  he  would  not 
have  proved  equal,  or  a  situation    in    which    he 
would  not  have  made  himself  quite  "at  home."  He 
was  unquestionably  a  genius;    but,    unlike    most 
men  thus  gifted,  he  was  an  indefatigable  worker. 
He  had  an  unquenchable  thirst  for  knowledge,  and 
would  hesitate  at  no  exploration  in  search  of  it. 
Men  marveled  not  only  at  the  extent  and  diversity 
of  his  knowledge,  but  even  more  at  its  thoroughness 
and  profundity.    He  confounded  the  savants  them 
selves,  who  could  not  understand  when  he  had  had 
the  time  or  where  he  had  found  the  opportunity 
to  delve  so  deep  into  the  mysteries  of  the  sciences 
or  philosophy.       His  public  life  covered  half  his 
years;  and  yet  if  we  eliminate  from  the  calculation 
that  entire  public  career,  we  shall  still  have,  in  his 


6  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

charming  books  of  travel  and  other  literary  ven 
tures,  enough  left  to  establish  his  title  to  an  envi 
able  niche  in  the  history  of  his  country. 

His  service  in  Congress,  aggregating  close  upon 
three  decades,  covers  a  memorable  period,  or  rath 
er  three  memorable  periods,  in  the  nation's  his 
tory;  the  first,  the  period  immediately  before  the 
war  of  the  rebellion;  the  second,  the  period  of  the 
war  itself;  and  the  third,  the  period  of  reconstruc 
tion.  In  all  three  he  was  a  conspicuous  figure. 
The  stranger  entering  for  the  first  time  the  gal 
lery  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  asking 
to  be  pointed  out  the  men  of  note  on  the  floor  be 
low,  was  sure,  any  time  in  those  thirty  years,  to 
inquire,  among  the  first,  "Which  is  Sunset  Cox?" 
His  speeches,  always  breezy  and  brilliant,  were 
sure  to  fill  the  vacant  seats  in  the  Hall,  from  the 
adjoining  cloak-rooms  and  lobbies.  It  was,  how 
ever,  in  the  heat  of  debate  that  he  shone  the  most 
vividly.  In  repartee  he  had  no  superior,  if  equal, 
in  his  day. 

Mr.  Cox's  energies  as  a  legislator  were  rather 
on  humanitarian  than  strictly  political  lines.  One 
of  his  eulogists,  of  a  race  which  had  been  the  vic 
tim  of  prejudice  and  oppression  in  many  lands  and 
for  many  centuries,  characterized  him  as  a  "strong 
and  wise  defender  of  the  oppressed  of  all  climes 
and  of  all  faiths."  His  humanity  was  broad  and 
deep.  Wherever  was  persecution,  the  first  to 
spring  to  the  front  in  the  American  Congress  to 
do  away  with  it,  was  Samuel  Sullivan  Cox. 

Of  none  of  the  achievements  of  his  public  career 
was  he  prouder  than  of  those  which  justified  his 
title  of  "Father  of  the  Life-Saving  Service,"  or  the 
"Friend  of  the  Letter  Carriers."  And  yet,  in  his 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  7 

elaborate  volume,  "Three  Decades  of  Federal 
Legislation,"  he  modestly  refrains  from  making 
even  passing  allusion  to  those  crowning  triumphs 
of  his  legislative  life.  Those,  however,  whom  he 
so  ably  served  will  ever  keep  his  deeds  in  grateful 
remembrance. 

In  the  limits  set  to  this  volume  it  was  not  pos 
sible  to  go  beyond  a  mere  outline  of  Mr.  Cox's 
memorable  legislative  experience.  His  many  no 
table  speeches  in  Congress  and  public  addresses 
outside  of  that  body  would  make  a  valuable  vol 
ume,  sparkling  in  thought  and  expression,  and 
evincing  ripe  scholarship  and  profound  study.  He 
touched  no  subject  that  he  did  not  illuminate  and 
adorn.  Generations  hence,  traditions  of  Samuel 
Sullivan  Cox  will  be  on  the  lips  of  the  men  who 
shall  serve  in  the  halls  of  the  American  Congress. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ANCESTRY. 

For  Virginia  the  claim  has  proudly  been  made 
that  she  was  the  mother  of  States  and  Statesmen. 
The  Old  Dominion  has  a  rival  in  the  State  which 
lies  between  the  Ohio  Kiver  and  Lake  Erie — the 
only  State  of  the  Union  which,  in  the  days  of  sla 
very,  touched  the  borders  of  a  slave  State  on  the 
one  side  and  the  Canadian  line  on  the  other.  With 
the  record  she  has  made  before  her,  Ohio  may 
justly  contest  with  Virginia  the  honor  of  being 
the  mother  of  statesmen.  Especially  since  the 
outbreak  of  the  civil  war,  in  1861,  the  State  of  Ohio 
has,  through  her  gallant  sons,  cut  a  conspicuous 
figure  in  American  history,  in  both  field  and  cabi 
net.  Every  Republican  chosen  President  of  the 
Republic  since  Lincoln — Grant,  Hayes,  Garfield, 
Harrison,  and  McKinley — first  saw  the  light  in 
Ohio.  Here  also  was  the  birthplace  of  those  great 
military  chieftains,  Grant  and  Sherman;  of  great 
administrators  such  as  Chase  and  Stanton;  and 
statesmen  foremost  in  the  halls  of  legislation, -like 
Ewing,  Hendricks,  and  John  Sherman.  In  this 
last  named  group  belongs  also  another  name, 
equally  illustrious,  suffering  naught  by  compari 
son,  a  man  for  over  thirty  years  conspicuous  in  the 
country's  service — Samuel  Sullivan  Cox.  With 
the  zeal  of  his  service  he  blended  a  keen  political 


10  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

foresight  which  history  has  vindicated,  in  the  tri 
umph  in  recent  years  of  the  conservative  princi 
ples  for  which  he  so  ably  contended. 

The  secret  of  the  prominence  in  national  affairs 
attained  by  these  sons  of  Ohio,  the  product  of  her 
virgin  soil,  is  easily  found  by  those  who  would 
seek  it.  Largely  it  is  a  matter  of  heredity.  The 
early  settlers  of  Ohio  were  sturdy  representatives 
from  the  best  families  of  New  England,  the  Mid 
dle  States,  and  Virginia,  and  if  we  examine  the 
family  history  of  any  one  of  the  distinguished 
representatives  from  Ohio  we  shall  find  that  he 
was  a  descendant  from  some  one  of  these  brave 
pioneers.  The  truth  of  all  this  is  demonstrated 
with  more  than  ordinary  force  in  the  case  of  Sam 
uel  S.  Cox. 

Of  his  ancestors  on  the  paternal  side  the  first 
to  come  to  the  New  World  was  Thomas  Cox,  who, 
with  his  wife  Elizabeth  Blashford,  of  Marshpath- 
kills,  Long  Island,  settled  in  Upper  Freehold 
township  in  the  Province  of  East  New  Jersey  in 
1670.  The  family  came  from  Herefordshire,  Eng 
land,  and  were  people  of  means,  as  is  shown  by 
the  fact  that  the  name  of  Thomas  Cox  is  included 
among  those  of  the  twenty-four  original  proprie 
tors  of  the  Province.  Their  son  James  (born  Au 
gust  18,  1672;  died  October  18,  1750),  was 
born  in  Monmouth  County  two  years  after  their 
settlement  in  New  Jersey,  and  he  became  a  large 
land  owner.  His  estate  included  some  of  the 
most  valuable  lands  in  the  colony  and  from  its 
richness  was  called  "Cream  Kidge,"  a  name  hand 
ed  down  to  posterity  by  a  postoffice  in  the  imme 
diate  vicinity,  at  which  some  of  his  descendants 


GENERAL  JAMES  COX. 
(Grandfather  of  S.  S.  Cox.) 


SAMUEL  S,ULLIVAN  COX  11 

still  receive  their  mail.  He  lived  to  the  age  of 
seventy-eight.  The  next  in  descent  was  Joseph 
Cox  (born  August  18,  1713;  died  April  17,  1801). 
He  was  a  farmer  in  easy  circumstances,  of  whom 
it  was  said  that  "he  always  contended  for  the 
equal  rights  of  man;  that  he  was  opposed  to  all 
oppression  and  injustice;  that  he  honored  no  man 
because  he  was  rich;  that  he  was  never  ashamed 
of  honest  labor,  and  readily  put  his  hand  to  any 
work  to  be  done  on  his  farm."  In  early  life 
he  married  Mary,  (born  May  31,  1715;  died  No 
vember  24,  1800)  daughter  of  Thomas  Mount  of 
Shrewsbury,  N.  J.,  and  the  last  years  of  these  two 
good  people  were  spent  in  comfort  and  ease  on  the 
fine  old  farm  in  Upper  Freehold.  One  of  their 
grandchildren  often  referred  to  the  happy  hours 
spent  in  their  rooms  listening  to  the  Bible  which 
this  venerable  ancestor  delighted  to  read  aloud  to 
his  wife.  He  lived  to  be  eighty-eight  years  of  age 
and  survived  his  wife  by  one  year;  she  having 
died  in  1800,  at  eighty-five. 

James  Cox  (born  October  16,  1753,  died  Septem 
ber  12,  1810),  was  the  ninth  child  of  the  foregoing. 
As  a  young  man  he  was  noted  for  his  mental  and 
physical  vigor  and  activity,  and  these  qualities 
stood  him  in  stead  in  the  stormy  times  so  soon 
to  occur.  When  the  war  of  the  Revolution  began 
he  promptly  enlisted  as  a  private  in  the  First  New 
Jersey  Regiment.  He  was  soon  elected  first  lieu 
tenant  of  his  company,  of  which  he  was  frequent 
ly  given  command,  and  participated  in  the  battles 
of  Germantown  and  Monmouth,  the  latter  of 
which  was  fought  within  a  few  miles  of  his  home. 
To  illustrate  his  courage  when  under  fire  the  fol 
lowing  story  was  related  to  his  son,  David  Jones 


12  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  cox 

Cox,  by  an  Irish  soldier  from  Delaware,  who 
served  under  him:  "In  the  battle  of  Monmouth, 
be  dad,  the  bullets  flew  thicker  than  hail-stones, 
and  'Jammy'  right  in  the  midst  of  them — indade  I 
never  ixpected  to  see  him  alive  if  he  did  not  flee — 
but  the  divil  a  bit  of  flight  was  there  in  Jamrny 
and  he  did  not  even  get  hit  by  'em.  Och!  your 
father  was  a  blue  hen's  chicken,  indade  was  he.r 
His  patriotism  was  so  intense  that  even  after  the 
war  was  over  he  persistently  held  aloof  from  those 
who  had  remained  loyal  to  the  crown,  as  the  fol 
lowing  anecdote  will  show:  One  day  while  at 
work  in  a  field  he  discovered  the  residence  of  a 
neighbor  to  be  on  fire.  He  at  once  hastened  to 
the  spot,  accompanied  by  the  farm-hand  who  was 
at  work  with  him,  and  by  great  exertion,  even  at 
the  risk  of  his  life,  succeeded  in  extinguishing  the 
flaines.  This  service  excited  lively  expressions  of 
gratitude  and  elicited  a  confession  that  this  same 
family  had  often  attempted  to  have  his  house 
burned  during  the  war.  But  no  permanent  recon 
ciliation  took  place.  General  Cox  still  looked  up 
on  these  neighbors  as  enemies  of  his  country  and 
they  for  their  part  never  ceased  to  regard  him  as 
a  rebel  against  the  King. 

Soon  after  the  Revolution  Mr.  Cox  was  made  a 
major  in  the  militia  and  later  he  was  chosen  by  the 
legislature  brigadier-general  of  the  Monmouth 
Brigade.  He  was  also  called  to  various  civic  of 
fices  of  trust,  such  as  assessor  and  town  clerk.  In 
1800  he  was  induced  to  become  a  candidate  for  the 
State  legislature  but  was  defeated.  A  year  later 
he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  General  Assembly 
and  held  his  seat  in  that  body  for  seven  terms.  In 


SAMUEL  S.ULLIVAN  COX  13 

his  third  year  he  was  elected  speaker  of  the  Assem 
bly  and  he  continued  to  hold  that  position  so  long 
as  he  was  a  member  of  the  Assembly.  In  1808  he 
was  elected  a  Representative  in  Congress.  He  had 
served  two  years  in  that  body  when  his  career  was 
suddenly  cut  short  by  apoplexy  which  terminated 
fatally  in  September,  1810.  General  Cox  was 
known  as  an  earnest  Christian  gentleman.  His 
generosity  and  hospitality  were  famous,  so  much 
so  indeed  as  to  prevent  any  great  accumulation 
of  property.  His  son,  the  Rev.  Samuel  J.  Cox, 
wrote  on  this  point:  "The  large  size  of  his  family; 
the  great  number  of  visitors;  and  the  natural  de 
sire  to  make  an  appearance  in  accordance  with  his 
station  and  the  company  he  kept,  prevented  much 
accumulation  of  property."  Besides  this,  he  was 
induced  by  his  pastor  to  purchase  Kentucky  land, 
the  title  of  which  proved  worthless.  He  was  also 
prevailed  upon  to  become  security  for  a  man  en 
gaged  in  the  same  land  transaction,  which  he  had 
to  pay.  During  the  time  he  was  making  payments 
he  promised  to  deliver  a  load  of  leather  on  a  cer 
tain  day.  On  his  way,  he  heard  that  the  purcnas- 
er's  affairs  were  in  a  critical  condition;  but  he 
went  on.  Before  he  arrived  he  passed  the  resi 
dence  of  Rev.  Dr.  Staughton,  who  hastened  out  to 
stop  him,  and  informed  him  of  the  state  of  the 
case.  General  Cox  replied,  "I  have  promised,  and 
what  can  I  do?"  After  some  further  conversa 
tion,  Dr.  Staughton  lifted  up  his  hands  and  ex 
claimed  in  the  language  of  Dr.  Watts,  "And 
though  to  his  own  hurt  he  swears,  still  he  per 
forms  his  word" "Go  on,  and  may  the  Lord 

bless  you!"     This  circumstance  shows  how  rigid 
ly  he  regarded  the  obligation  of  a  pledge. 


14  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

He  was  a  rare  conversationalist  and  his  anec 
dotes  were  spiced  with  wit  and  humor.  He  was 
very  popular  among  his  neighbors  by  whom  it  was 
related  that  he  never  asked  any  person  to  vote  for 
him,  and  that  from  the  time  of  his  nomination  till 
after  election  he  scarcely  ever  left  his  own  farm. 
In  appearance  and  manners  he  was  dignified  and 
commanding,  and  he  was  a  general  favorite  with 
both  political  parties.  It  was  from  this  ancestor, 
apparently,  that  his  distinguished  grandson  inher 
ited  some  of  his  choicest  traits.  In  a  speech 
made  in  Monmouth  county  in  1868,  Mr.  S.  S.  Cox 
said: 

"The  Tories  never  loved  my  grandfather  Cox  as 
a  whig  in  the  Revolution.  They  hated  him  as  a 
Democrat  after.  For  years  he  was  a  member,  in 
fact,  the  Speaker  of  one  of  the  houses  of  legisla 
tion  at  Trenton.  He  died  as  the  Democratic  mem 
ber  of  Congress  just  before  the  War  of  1812.  He 
was  an  honest,  just,  courteous,  courageous,  and 
fearless  Democrat  champion.  He  was  the  warm 
friend  of  Jefferson  and  the  devoted  advocate  of 
Madison.  He  believed  in  the  Democratic  rules  of 
interpreting  the  Constitution.  His  hatred  of  re 
straints  upon  personal  and  soul  liberty;  his  di 
atribes  against  the  alien  and  sedition  laws;  his 
steadfast  dislike  of  Englishmen  and  English  pol 
icy  have  been  handed  down  as  heir-looms." 

To  disregard  the  maternal  line  in  considering  a 
genealogical  record  would  be  to  ignore  a  most  im 
portant  influence  in  moulding  life  and  character. 

Anne  Potts  (born  February  13,  1757;  died  March 
21,  1815),  the  grandmother  of  Samuel  S.  Cox  on 
the  paternal  side,  was  the  daughter  of  William 


SAMUEL  S,ULLIVAN  COX  15 

Potts  of  Burlington,  N.  J.,  who  was  the  grandson 
of  William  Potts  who  arrived  in  the  New  World 
in  1678,  having  with  his  wife  and  children  come 
over  in  the  "Shield,"  the  first  ship  that  ever  drop 
ped  anchor  before  Burlington.  Her  mother  was 
Amy,  the  youngest  daughter  of  Joseph  Borden. 
the  founder  of  Bordentown,  N.  J.  The  Borden 
connection  is  one  of  special  interest  for  the  reason 
that  Richard  Borden,  the  grandfather  of  Joseph 
Borden,  who  founded  Bordentown,  was  the  only 
New  England  ancestor  that  Mr.  Cox  had.  Richard 
Borden  was  a  resident  of  Portsmouth,  R.  I.,  and 
served  as  an  Assistant  in  1653-4;  as  Treasurer  in 
1654-5,  and  as  Deputy  in  1667-70.  Although  only 
collaterally  related  it  is  interesting  to  note  that 
Col.  Joseph  Borden,  who  was  the  son  of  the  found 
er,  was  an  ardent  patriot,  being  a  member  of  the 
Stamp  Act  Congress  in  1765,  a  Delegate  to  the 
Provincial  Congress  of  New  Jersey  in  1775,  and 
subsequently  to  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  of  the 
Revolution,  a  Colonel  of  a  Batallion,  and  Quarter- 
Master  of  the  State  troops.  His  daughter  Mary 
married  Thomas  McKean,  member  of  Congress 
from  Delaware  in  1776,  and  a  signer  of  the  Decla 
ration  of  Independence.  Subsequently  he  became 
Governor  of  Pennsylvania.  Another  daughter, 
Anne,  married  Francis  Hopkins,  also  a  signer  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  from  New  Jersey. 
Joseph  Hopkinson,  the  author  of  "Hail  Colum 
bia,"  was  his  son.  The  marriage  of  Anne  Potts 
with  James  Cox,  the  grandfather  of  the  subject  of 
this  biography,  took  place  on  February  29,  1776, 
a  few  months  prior  to  the  Declaration  of  Ameri 
can  Independence.  We  may  be  sure  that  she 


16  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

shared  with  her  newly  wedded  husband  his  strong 
love  of  country;  indeed,  it  may  have  been  her  po 
tent  influence  that  induced  him,  leaving  his  bride, 
to  join  the  Colonial  army.  Mrs.  Cox  was  long  re 
membered  as  a  devoted  Christian  and  an  excellent 
mother  to  her  thirteen  children.  She  was  de 
scribed  by  one  who  knew  her  well  as  "an  almost 
peerless  woman."  While  on  her  way  to  pay  a 
visit  to  one  of  her  children,  in  1815,  she  was 
drowned  in  the  Delaware  River  by  the  capsizing 
of  the  packet  boat  on  which  she  was  a  passenger. 
The  simple  inscription  "Mild,  benevolent,  and 
pious,  few  lived  more  beloved,  or  died  more  la 
mented"  engraved  on  her  tombstone  in  Trenton, 
is  a  truthful  epitome  of  her  character. 

Speaking,  in  the  campaign  of  1868,  at  Mount 
Holly,  New  Jersey,  Mr.  Cox  indulged  in  some  rem 
iniscences  of  his  family  connection  with  that 
neighborhood.  "Fifty  years  ago,"  he  said,  "my 
father  emigrated  from  this  neighborhood,  where 
his  father  lived  before  him.  He  carried,  on  a  pack 
horse  over  the  Alleganies,  the  old  Ramage  print 
ing  press.  He  was  a  pioneer  printer.  His  father,  a 
descendant  of  the  proprietor  of  East  Jersey,  was 
Gen.  James  Cox,  one  of  the  heroes  of  Germantown, 
Brandywine,  and  Monmouth.  My  grandfather  was 
married  at  Mansfield,  in  this  county.  My  great 
grandfather  was  Mr.  Borden:  Bordentown  per 
petuates  his  good  name.  Some  of  these  good  peo 
ple  were  Baptists,  whose  motto  was,  'Let  us  have 
war,'  while  war  was  flagrant;  and  some  Quakers, 
whose  motto  was,  'Let  us  have  peace/  when  peace 
was  needed." 

An  old  water  color  still  in  the  possession  of  the 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  17 

family  shows  the  old  homestead — "Box  Grove"  as 
it  was  called — near  Imlaystown.  General  Cox 
stands  in  the  doorway  of  the  picturesque  home 
clothed  in  his  military  uniform  of  buff  and  blue 
with  cocked  hat  and  knee  breeches.  His  devoted 
wife,  Ann  Potts,  is  by  his  side  dressed  in  the  plain 
garb  of  a  Quakeress.  In  the  foreground  is  his 
handsome  son,  Thomas,  also  in  knee  breeches  and 
with  a  very  long  tailed  coat.  Thomas  is  greeting 
a  young  lady  wearing  a  quaint  short  waisted 
white  gown,  who  is  said  to  be  his  fiance.  To  the 
left  by  a  grape  arbor  are  Amy  and  Mary,  twin  sis 
ters,  dressed  in  the  style  of  that  time.  The  pride  of 
a  parent,  in  those  days,  was  in  his  family;  and  in 
this  respect  General  Cox  was  abundantly  blessed, 
being  the  father  of  fourteen  children.  Of  these 
the  twelfth,  and  father  of  Samuel  Sullivan 
Cox,  was  Ezekiel  Taylor  Cox  (born  in  Upper  Free 
hold  May  25,  1795;  died  in  Zanesville  May  18, 
1873.)  Ezekiel  as  a  boy  was  given  such  limited  ad 
vantages  of  education  as  the  country  then  afford 
ed.  A  cousin  by  marriage  was  James  J.  Wilson  of 
Trenton,  a  man  of  extraordinary  talents,  edi 
tor  of  the  "True  American"  newspaper.  Wilson, 
whose  wife  was  a  daughter  of  Samuel  Cox,  an  eld 
er  brother  of  General  Cox,  held  in  his  time  many 
offices  of  public  trust,  including  that  of  United 
States  Senator.  Concededly  he  wielded  the  largest 
political  influence  of  any  man  in  New  Jersey.  It 
was  Ezekiel  Cox's  good  fortune  to  become  asso 
ciated  with  Senator  Wilson,  in  the  publication  of 
his  newspaper.  "Wilson,"  wrote  the  Rev.  Samuel  J. 
Cox,  brother  of  Ezekiel,  "was  very  intimate  with 
my  father  and  his  family,  and  a  strong  attachment 


18  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

both  political  and  social  subsisted  between  them. 
This,  probably  led  to  my  being  placed  in  his  fam 
ily  and  in  his  office,  where  at  a  subsequent  period, 
my  brother  Ezekiel  was  also  placed,  for  the  same 
purpose." 

Young-  Ezekiel  found  himself  in  a  congenial  en 
vironment  and  he  improved  every  opportunity  to 
educate  himself.  His  studious  habits,  probity,  and 
great  aptness  were  appreciated  by  Senator  Wilson 
who  soon  grew  to  depend  on  him  and  placed  much 
of  his  private  business  in  his  care.  This  was  per 
formed  with  such  satisfaction  that  the  young  man 
was  given  an  interest  in  the  "True  American."  He 
rose  to  be  State  Printer  of  New  Jersey,  by  ap 
pointment  of  the  Legislature,  of  which  his  father, 
Gen.  Cox,  was  speaker.  The  west  in  those  days  was 
still  new,  and  opportunities  for  fortune-making 
presented  themselves  to  such  as  were  willing  to 
brave  the  hardships  of  a  frontier  life. 

"Westward  the  course  of  empire  takes  its  way." 
Wildernesses  soon  became  fertile  farms,  settle 
ments  grew  to  towns,  and  towns  gave  way  with 
equal  rapidity  to  large  cities.  Ohio  was  an  Eldor 
ado  fifty  years  before  California  claimed  that  ap 
pellation.  Strong  with  an  ambition  to  succeed  in 
life,  Ezekiel  T.  Cox  disposed  of  all  his  belongings, 
save  alone  his  Ramage  press  and  type  with  which, 
packed  on  the  back  of  his  horse,  he  turned  his  face 
to  the  west.  Behind  him  were  strong  family  and 
local  ties.  In  front  of  him  was  an  unknown  land. 
But  firm  in  his  faith  of  ultimate  success  he  per 
sisted  and  overcame  the  trials  of  a  long  journey 
through  the  wilderness  and  over  fastnesses  of  the 
Alleghenies  until  at  last  he  reached  the  promised 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  19 

land  of  Ohio.  He  stopped  at  Zanesville  and  the 
natural  advantages  of  the  place  appealed  so 
strongly  to  him  that  he  determined  to  build  for 
himself  a  home  on  the  banks  of  the  Muskingum. 
About  this  time  the  "Muskingum  Messenger,"  one 
of  the  earliest  of  Ohio  newspapers,  having  been  es 
tablished  in  1810,  was  for  sale.  Mr.  Cox  made  an 
offer  for  it,  which  was  promptly  accepted,  and  in 
February,  1819,  he  became  its  publisher  and  edi 
tor. 

Party  feeling  even  at  that  remote  period  gave 
rise  to  bitter  animosities,  but  with  an  experience 
gained  in  the  best  school,  and  with  rare  tact,  Mr. 
Cox  was  soon  master  of  the  situation.  His  ready 
pen,  combined  with  an  excellent  stock  of  informa 
tion,  made  the  "Messenger"  the  most  influential 
Jacksonian  organ  in  the  state.  A  writer  referring 
to  the  trials  experienced  by  Mr.  Cox  in  conducting 
his  paper  said:  "It  was  no  ordinary  effort — at  that 
day — when  everything,  from  rags  to  cord  wood— 
everything  but  cash — had  to  be  taken  for  subscrip 
tions  and  jobs,  to  make  a  paper  successful."  The 
success  of  the  "Messenger"  shows  that  it  was  ed 
ited  and  managed  with  ability. 

In  1821  Mr.  Cox,  having  demonstrated  himself  a 
successful  editor,  was  chosen  a  clerk  of  the  Court 
of  Common  Pleas,  and  so  satisfactorily  did  he  per 
form  the  duties  of  that  exacting  office  that  he  was 
also  made  clerk  of  the  Supreme  Court  and  Record 
er  of  Muskingum  county.  These  offices  he  held  for 
many  years,  so  discharging  his  duties  as  to  receive 
the  commendation  alike  of  judges,  attorneys,  and 
clients.  In  1831  he  was  elected  to  the  State  Sen 
ate,  and  while  a  member  of  that  bodv  secured  an 


20  SAMUEL  S,ULLIVAN  COX 

appropriation  for  the  slack  water  navigation  be 
tween  Zanesville  and  Dresden.  In  genera]  affairs 
he  was  also  active,  among  Ms  achievements  the 
most  important,  perhaps,  being  the  establishment, 
in  1833,  of  a  steam  paper  mill — said  to  be  the  first 
paper  mill  west  of  the  Alleghenies — in  Zanesville. 
The  mill  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1837,  and  soon 
after  he  disposed  of  his  interest  to  his  brother; 

After  years  filled  with  activities  of  many  kinds, 
came  the  natural  desire  for  rest;  and  one  by  one 
Ezekiel  relinquished  his  different  offices  in  order 
to  retire  to  a  farm  of  some  forty  acres  which  in 
1840  he  purchased  in  Springfield  township.  Here 
for  a  decade  or  more  he  made  his  home,  while  he  saw 
around  him  his  large  family  growing  from  child 
hood  to  maturity.  In  1850  he  returned  to  active 
journalism,  and  with  his  son  Alexander  purchased 
the  '  'Gazette,"  which  was  published  in  Zanesville. 
It  has  been  pointedly  said  concerning  this  new 
venture  that:  "It  showed  more  than  his  early  ef 
forts  in  the  same  vocation,  that  the  graduate  of 
the  poor  boy's  college,  the  printing  office,  was  wor 
thy  of  his  education." 

Public  office  again  claimed  him,  and  he  was 
made  United  States  Marshal  for  that  section  of 
Ohio  in  which  he  lived.  An  incident  occurred 
while  he  held  this  office  which  will  illustrate  the 
character  of  the  man.  He  had  received  instruc 
tions  to  apprehend  a  runaway  slave.  Bearing  in 
mind  the  sacred  obligation  of  his  oath  of  office,  and 
not  to  be  deterred  by  angry  threats,  he  determined 
that  he  would  arrest  the  negro  at  all  hazards,  even 
at  the  risk  of  his  life.  This  he  did,  not  however 
without  sacrifice  of  standing  in  his  church.  As 


SAMUEL  S-ULLIVAN  COX  21 

penalty  for  performing  a  most  disagreeable  duty 
he  was  expelled  from  the  Market  Street  Baptist 
Church,  in  which  he  was  a  deacon,  losing  also,  of 
course,  that  honored  office.  Although  opposed  to 
slavery  he  was  not  a  man  to  flinch  in  the  execution 
of  any  duty  connected  with  a  public  office  that  he 
held,  or  to  resign  his  commission  in  times  of  emer 
gency. 

In  1866  his  children  having  for  the  most  part 
settled  in  life,  Ezekiel  Cox  determined  to  give  up 
his  farm  and  settle  in  a  city.  Accordingly  his  son, 
Samuel,  secured  for  him  from.  President  Johnson 
the  nomination  to  be  Pension  Agent  in  Columbus, 
Ohio.  The  Senate  refused  to  confirm  him,  on  the 
ground  that  the  candidate  was  a  Democrat.  How 
ever,  he  went  to  Washington  and  was  associated 
for  a  time  in  a  large  claim  and  brokerage  business 
established  by  his  son  Alexander.  Longing  for  his 
old  friends  and  his  old  home,  he  returned  in  a  few 
years  to  Zanesville.  He  celebrated  the  golden  an 
niversary  of  his  wedding  at  the  old  home  (then  the 
property  of  the  widow  of  his  eldest  son,  Colonel 
Thomas  J.  Cox)  on  April  8,  1872,  and  a  year  later 
on  May  18,  1873,  he  died. 

Senator  Cox  was  an  uncompromising  Democrat, 
of  the  Jackson  school.  In  the  family  archives  is 
extant  an  old  letter  signed  by  twenty  or  more 
leading  Democrats  of  Ohio,  and  addressed  to  Pres 
ident  Andrew  Jackson,  introducing  Senator  Cox. 
The  letter  is  dated  Columbus,  O.,  20th  February, 
1833,  and  reads  thus: — 

"General  Andrew  Jackson — Dear  Sir: — Our  es 
teemed  fellow-citizen,  E.T.Cox,  Esq.,  of  Zanesville, 
at  present  a  member  of  the  Senate  of  this  State,  ex 
pects  to  visit  Washington,  and  for  the  first  time 


22  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

to  make  a  call  on  the  President  while  in  the  city. 
Mr.  Cox  stands  deservedly  high  among  his  friends 
and  acquaintances  in  Ohio,  and  for  many  years  has 
stood  identified  with  the  democracy  of  the  Union. 
From  his  character  and  standing  among  us,  he  is 
worthy  of  all  confidence.  It  is  with  much  pleasure 
we  introduce  him  to  your  acquaintance,  and  beg 
leave,  through  him,  to  tender  you,  as  the  chief 
magistrate  of  this  nation,  our  kindest  regard  and 
salutations." 

A  newspaper  obituary  said  of  him:  " Whether 
we  regard  the  deceased  as  a  pioneer  citizen  of 
this  place,  as  an  early  and  constant  friend  of  its 
improvement,  as  an  oflicer  and  legislator,  as  a  po 
litical  and  social  friend,  as  a  kind,  indulgent 
father  and  affectionate  husband,  whether  as  an 
adventurous  printer  and  editor  in  the  wilderness 
of  Ohio,  combatting  with  untried  difficulties,  and 
not  only  accomplished  at  the  case  and  the  press, 
but  in  clear,  technical,  and  accurate  style  of  writ 
ing,  or  as  a  faithful,  well-informed  and  attentive 
officer  of  the  court,  courteous  to  judges,  jurors, 
witnesses,  suitors,  and  lawyers;  or  as  a  Christian 
man  of  just  views  and  honest  conduct,  refined  by 
extensive  reading  and  reflection,  and  a  constant 
communion  with  his  Bible  and  his  God,  his  name 
will  be  remembered  with  honor.  It  reflects  credit 
upon  his  children,  as  well  as  the  city  and  state  in 
which  he  lived." 

Such  was  the  father  of  Samuel  S.  Cox  as  he  ap 
peared  to  his  neighbors. 

The  mother  of  Samuel  S.  Cox  was  Maria  Matil 
da  (born  March  16,  1801;  died  April  3,  1885),  the 
second  daughter  of  Judge  Samuel  Sullivan  and 
his  wife  Mary  Freeman. 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  33 

The  Sullivan  family  is  of  Irish  origin,  tracing  its 
line  to  one  Fingin,  a  son  of  Aod  Dubh,  King  of 
Munster.  Its  first  ancestor  in  this  country  came  to 
America  with  one  of  the  Irish  colonies  sent  by  Lord 
Baltimore  for  the  settlement  of  Maryland  under 
the  charter  granted  by  Charles  June  20,  1632.  The 
intolerance  of  the  Old  World  is  in  great  contrast 
to  the  broad  tolerant  spirit  of  the  State  Constitu 
tion  of  Maryland,  framed  by  these  refugees  of  the 
Roman  faith. 

The  Sullivan  family  was  scattered  through  vari 
ous  parts  of  Maryland,  Virginia  and  Delaware, 
and  from  that  branch  that  settled  in  Delaware  the 
present  line  of  descent  is  derived. 

Samuel  Sullivan,  son  of  David  and  Jane  Sulli 
van,  was  born  near  Wilmington,  Delaware,  April 
10,  1772;  and  died,  October  15,  1853.  The  early 
death  of  his  parents,  the  misappropriation  of  the 
family  estate  and  bad  investments  by  the  business 
partner  left  the  three  young  boys  dependent  upon 
strangers  and  the  labor  of  their  own  hands. 

As  was  customary  in  those  days,  they  were  ap 
prenticed,  and  Samuel's  lot  was  to  serve  as  a  pot 
ter  in  one  of  the  factories  on  the  banks  of  the  Del 
aware  river,  below  Philadelphia.  This  factory 
was  among  the  first  of  its  kind  in  the  New 
World.  The  knowledge  here  acquired  was  "stock 
in  trade"  for  the  young  man  when  his  fortunes 
drifted  him  into  the  Middle  W>st.  He  discovered 
and  utilized  the  fine  clay  banks  in  Ohio,  and  was 
the  pioneer  manufacturer  of  fine  wares  of  which 
the  Muskingum  Valley  and  other  parts  of  Ohio 
boast  to-day. 

There  are  specimens  of  this  early,  yellow  orna- 


24  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

mented  ware  made  by  Samuel  Sullivan  still  in  the 
family. 

Samuel  Sullivan  was  scarcely  of  age  when  he 
married  in  Philadelphia,  Mary  Freeman,  daugh 
ter  of  Samuel  and  Elizabeth  Freeman.  Mary  Free 
man  was  a  native  of  Delaware,  born  August  25, 
1773.  She  lived  to  the  great  age  of  ninety,  dying 
in  Zanesville,  Ohio,  December  27,  1863.  In  1804 
Samuel  followed  his  two  elder  brothers,  David  and 
Aaron  Sullivan,  to  Ohio  and  after  spending  some 
years  in  the  Scioto  Valley,  and  in  St.  Glairsville, 
he  finally  settled  permanently  in  Zanesville,  then 
the  Capital  of  Ohio.  Identifying  himself  with  the 
general  interests  of  Muskingum  county  in  1.816  he 
was  elected  a  judge  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas. 
Later  he  was  sent  to  the  Ohio  Senate  and  then  was 
chosen  by  the  Legislature  State  Treasurer,  a  post 
which  he  held  for  a  year.  Finally  from  1827  to 
1831  he  was  postmaster  of  Zanesville. 

The  last  years  of  his  life  were  spent  on  his  farm, 
where  he  devoted  special  attention  to  horticul 
ture.  He  planted  two  orchards,  the  last  after  he 
was  seventy-five  years  of  age.  When  asked  how 
he  could  interest  himself  in  labor,  the  fruits  of 
which  he  could  not  expect  to  live  to  enjoy,  he  gave 
the  philosophical  reply  that:  "We  were  not  work 
ing  for  ourselves  only — that  we  are  serving  as 
stewards  for  others;  and  that  if  our  predecesors 
had  been  governed  by  the  restricted  views  indi 
cated  in  the  inquiry,  the  world  would  not  now  be 
covered  with  good  and  pleasant  things." 

Judge  Sullivan  was  a  self  educated  man,  well- 
informed,  and  of  affable  and  genial  manners.  He 
was  never  charged  with  a  wrong  to  anybody. 
Recognizing  the  full  measure  of  his  responsibility 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  25 

in  moral  duty,  he  was  rated  by  those  who  knew 
him  best  as  eminently  a  just  man.  He  died  in 
Zanesville  in  October,  1853,  in  the  82d  year  of  his 
age. 

Reference  has  already  been  made  to  the  decision 
of  Mr.  Ezekiel  Cox  to  settle  in  Zanesville.  Among 
those  who  urged  this  action  was  Judge  Sullivan. 
The  young  editor  became  a  visitor  at  the  home  of 
the  Judge  and  showed  every  evidence  of  enjoy 
ment  in  the  society  of  his  senior  and  the  visits 
grew  in  frequency.  An  account  of  these 
visits  taken  from  a  family  record  tells  the  story  so 
exactly  that  it  is  quoted :  "The  Judge's  idea  of  Mr. 
Cox's  platonic  feelings,  however,  received  a  rude 
shock,  one  day  when  he  asked  for  the  hand  of  his 
daughter,  Maria  Matilda."  Consent  followed  and 
on  April  9,  1822,  Ezekiel  T.  Cox  and  Maria  Matil 
da  Sullivan  were  made  one — the  Rev.  James  Cul- 
bertson  performing  the  ceremony. 

Through  his  mother,  as  has  been  stated,  Mr.  Cox 
traced  his  lineage  to  one  of  Lord  Baltimore's  asso 
ciates  in  the  settlement  of  Maryland — the  grand 
father  of  Judge  Sullivan.  In  a  reminiscent  mood 
Mr.  Cox,  in  1885,  wrote  to  an  old  friend:  "I  have 
heard  my  grandfather  say  that  he  remembered  his 
grandmother  counting  her  beads.  These  Quaker- 
Methodists  of  Northern  Delaware  and  early  Ohio 
were  three  generations  before  devout  Catholics. 
But  the  change  of  faith  never  swerved  the  ances 
tral  integrity." 

Judge  Sullivan  gave  to  his  grandson  and  name 
sake  his  fullest  confidence,  choosing  him  among 
several  sons  and  sons-in-law,  as  his  sole  executor. 

In  his  last  will  and  testament  Judge  Sullivan 


26  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

charged  his  own  and  his  children's  children  to  re 
member  that  "their  inheritance  was  the  result  of 
Democratic  institutions,"  and  that  he  expected 
his  namesake  and  executor,  Samuel  Sullivan  Cox, 
"to  sustain  those  institutions  in  their  democratic 
form  and  tenor  with  ballot  and  with  bullet." 

The  mother  of  Samuel  Sullivan  Cox  was  born  in 
Philadelphia.  As  a  child  three  years  of  age  she 
accompanied  her  parents  on  the  tedious  journey 
over  difficult  roads,  across  rapid  running  streams 
and  mountains  that  were  high  and  hard  to  climb, 
until  the  great  fertile  Scioto  Valley  was  reached. 
Of  the  wanderings  that  followed  until  Zanesville 
became  the  permanent  home  of  her  parents,  Mrs. 
Cox  retained  a  vivid  recollection,  and  many  inci 
dents  of  that  portion  of  her  early  life  she  was 
fond  of  relating  to  her  grandchildren. 

She  frequently  recalled  the  cutting  down  of  the 
"nice  grape  vine  swings"  that  were  removed  when 
the  bridge  was  built  across  the  Muskingum  river 
at  Zanesville.  It  was  on  the  banks  of  this  river 
that  she  spent  the  happiest  hours  of  her  young 
girlhood.  Here  it  was  that  she  and  the  children 
of  the  early  settlers  romped  and  played — often 
with  Indian  children  from  "Wapatomika  towns." 
There  were  no  schools  in  Zanesville  in  those  days 
and  she  received  her  education  almost  entirely 
from  her  parents,  but  being  very  bright  and  a 
quick  observer,  she  shared  with  her  sister  Sarah 
the  reputation  of  being  "the  best  informed  young 
woman  in  the  neighborhood." 

While  in  her  teens  she  accompanied  her  father, 
when  elected  Senator,  to  Columbus,  no  longer 
"the  spot  opposite  Franklinton,"  but  now  the 


MARIA  MATILDA  SULLIVAN  COX. 
(Mother  of  S.  S.  Cox.) 


27  SAMUEL  S,ULLIVAN  COX 

Capital  of  Ohio.  By  her  ready  wit  and  by  her 
clearness  of  repartee,  she  became  a  great  favorite, 
and  many  of  the  state  officers  were  willing  to  be 
come  more  than  "my  lady's  most  devoted  admir 
er."  Among  these  suitors  were  two,  one  of  whom 
became  a  governor  of  Ohio  and  another  a  presi 
dent  of  the  United  States. 

As  a  wife,  she  was  devoted  to  every  detail  of  her 
husband's  career,  watchful  of  his  interests,  and 
happiest  in  his  presence. 

In  one  of  her  letters  while  her  husband — the 
father  of  S.  S.  Cox — was  in  attendance  at  the  Leg 
islature  she  writes 

"I  hope  you  will  soon  be  with  us," 
"we  put  off  all  pleasure  until  your  return." 

As  a  mother,  she  was  careful,  tender,  and  watch 
ful  of  her  children,  most  of  whom  she  saw  grow  to 
maturity.  For  more  than  fifty  years  the  unbrok 
en  thread  of  her  married  life  continued.  It  was  a 
happy  gathering,  that  at  the  old  homestead  on 
April  8,  1872,  to  celebrate  the  fiftieth  anniversary 
of  their  marriage.  Their  children  and  their  child 
ren's  children  were  there  to  render  filial  homage 
and  respect.  Here  and  there  from  the  group  was 
a  missing  face,  and  perhaps  most  of  all  in  this  hour 
of  gladness  the  aged  couple  thought  of  that  first 
born*  who  in  the  time  of  his  country's  need  had 
left  home,  like  that  ancestor  of  old,  to  fight  for  his 
country. 

Few  parents  have  lived  to  see  such  a  company  of 
descendants  as  were  gathered  on  that  occasion 


*Thomas  Jefferson  Cox,  born  March  7, 1823;  died,  September  17, 1866.  He 
tendered  his  services  to  the  Government,  and  on  June  11, 1863,  was  appointed 
by  President  Lincoln,  Captain  and  Assistant  Quartermaster.  He  was  pro 
moted  three  times,  and  died  at  his  post  of  duty  at  Nashville,  Tennessee. 


28  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

and  they  had  a  pardonable  pride  in  their  reflection 
that  not  one  of  them  had  brought  reproach  upon 
their  care  and  teaching. 

In  a  few  months  came  the  death  of  the  husband, 
and  more  and  more  as  the  years  advanced  the  ven 
erable  widow  came  to  depend  upon  her  second  son, 
Samuel  Sullivan,  named  for  her  own  father,  and, 
as  events  proved,  the  stay  of  her  widowhood  and 
her  old  age.  Twelve  years  she  survived  her  hus 
band.  In  April,  1885,  her  distinguished  son,  then 
about  to  embark  for  Turkey,  as  United  States  Min 
ister,  was  summoned  to  his  venerable  mother's 
bedside,  reaching  it  just  in  time  to  receive  her  con 
scious  blessing.  She  died  April  3,  1885,  aged  84, 


CHAPTER  II. 

BOYHOOD. 

Of  such  honorable  lineage  came  Samuel  Sulli 
van  Cox,  in  whom  were  happily  blended  the  best 
traits  and  characteristics  of  his  ancestors.  The 
second  of  a  family  of  thirteen  children — of  whom 
eight  grew  to  maturity — he  was  born,  in  Zanes- 
ville,  Ohio,  September  30,  1824.  His  father  was 
at  that  time  clerk  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Ohio 
and  the  family  residence  was  on  Third  street.  Sur 
rounding  the  home  which  welcomed  the  little 
stranger  were  well  kept  grounds,  abounding  with 
flowers  and  shrubs,  which  were  the  pride  and 
special  care  of  the  boy's  mother.  Not  far  distant 
resided  Judge  Sullivan,  and  his  honored  name,  the 
parents  decided,  should  be  bestowed  on  the  grand 
son.  So  they  called  him  Samuel  Sullivan. 

The  future  statesman's  advent  into  the  world 
was  in  the  midst  of  an  exciting  presidential  con 
test.  The  administration  of  President  Monroe 
was  drawing  to  a  close  and  with  it  the  "era  of  good 
feeling."  General  Jackson  was  waging  his  first 
campaign  for  capture  of  the  White  House.  It  was 
a  quadrangular  contest,  his  rivals  being  Henry 
Clay,  Wm.  H.  Crawford,  and  John  Quincy  Adams. 
In  both  the  popular  and  the  electoral  vote  the  hero 
of  New  Orleans  was  first  in  the  race,  but,  notwith 
standing,  he  failed  to  secure  the  glittering  prize. 


30  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

A  plurality  was  not  in  this  case  a  majority — there 
was  no  choice  in  the  electoral  college,  and,  in  con 
sequence,  the  election  went  to  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives.  That  body  chose  the  son  of  the 
second  president,  who  then  was  nearing  the  close 
of  his  eventful  life  in  Massachusetts.  While  this 
crisis  in  American  history,  culminating  in  the  el 
ection  of  John  Quincy  Adams  to  the  presidency, 
was  going  on,  Samuel  Sullivan  Cox  was  an  infant 
blissfully  indifferent  to  the  storm  of  passion 
which  wa.s  raging  without.  Indeed  Ohio,  three 
quarters  of  a  century  ago,  was  practically  as  dis 
tant  from  the  Atlantic  seaboard  as  is  Alaska  to 
day. 

The  steam  engine,  on  the  iron  rail,  had  not  yet 
come  to  annihilate  space;  nor  the  telegraph  to 
girdle  the  earth  and  annihilate  time  and  space. 
Weeks  must  elapse  before  the  mails,  carried  by 
lumbering  stages  over  rough  roads  and  across  the 
mountains,  could  convey  to  the  frontiersmen  of 
Zanesville  the  news  that,  not  Jackson  but  Adams, 
had  been  elevated  to  the  chair  of  James  Monroe. 

Little  Samuel  grew  and  flourished.  He  early 
became  the  pet  of  the  neighborhood.  He  is  de 
scribed  by  one  of  his  neighbors  as  having  been 
"bright,  sunny,  genial,  fond  of  fun,  sparkling  with 
wit,  always  truthful,  fearless,  and  generous,  never 
hesitating  to  confess  a  fault  of  his  own,  and  ever 
ready  to  defend  the  weak  and  oppressed."  The 
child  was  father  of  the  man.  In  the  village  school 
he  was  known  as  an  exceptionally  bright  scholar, 
always  ready,  however,  to  help  any  who  lagged 
behind  him  in  the  race  for  learning.  A  cousin  of 
his  was  fond  of  relating  how  he  was  taught  his 


•Jl 

H     o 
^      § 

II 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  31 

letters  by  this  boy,  who,  having  reached  the  ma 
ture  age  of  six,  was  ambitious  to  elevate  his  play 
mate,  his  junior  by  six  months,  to  a  level  with  his 
own  advancement. 

He  had  hardly  learned  to  read  before  he  devel 
oped  a  special  love  for  books  of  travel,  devouring 
eagerly  every  such  book  he  could  lay  his  hands  on. 
Visions  of  travel  filled  his  boyish  imagination, 
and  he  used  to  tell  his  mother  that  some  day  he, 
too,  was  going  to  visit  the  Holy  Land;  that  he 
would  go  to  Russia;  see  the  Sultan  and  the  min 
arets  of  Constantinople;  that  he  was  going  to  the 
North  Pole,  or  at  least  near  enough  to  it  to  see  the 
sun  go  'round  without  setting.  These  childish 
fancies  were  no  idle  dream;  he  lived  to  realize 
them  all,  and,  moreover,  to  make  word-pictures  of 
the  wonderful  scenes  he  witnessed,  which  were  to 
be  the  delight  of  thousands.  A  brilliant  career 
for  the  preternaturally  bright  boy  was  freely  pre 
dicted  by  his  teachers. 

A  sample  of  his  precocity  as  a  child  is  shown  in 
a  letter  written  by  him  when  he  was  eight  years 
of  age.  The  letter  is  to  his  father  while  the  lat 
ter  was  absent  at  Columbus.  Mrs.  Cox,  who  was 
sending  a  letter  to  her  husband,  from  "Lonely 
Mansion,"  January  30,  added:  "I  shall  fill  the 
vacancy  with  Samuel's  letter,  as  he  is  at  school 
but  has  it  written  on  the  slate.  He  says: 

"Dear  Father:  I  take  the  liberty  in  writing  in 
Mother's  letter  to  say  that  we  attend  to  our  school, 
that  we  study  our  tables  in  the  evening  and  I  be 
lieve  I  know  mine  pretty  well  and  what  do  you 
think  of  that?  Don't  you  think  I  deserve  a  News 
gift.  We  had  a  fine  time  on  Christmas.  We 


32  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

barred  the  master  out  and  he  had  to  treat  us  to 
some  cider,  apples,  cakes  and  nuts.  We  were  all 
sorry  at  the  loss  of  Turk.  Thomas  attends  to  his 
little  cow.  She  is  fat  and  gives  us  plenty  of  milk. 
Mother  has  made  Thomas  (then  ten  years  old)  a 
fine  green  hunting  shirt.  He  looks  quite  like  a 
backwoodsman.  Samuel  S.  Cox.' ' 

Two  other  literary  ventures  of  young  Samuel 
are  extant,  being  compositions  in  the  form  of  let 
ters  addressed,  one  to  his  mother,  the  other  to  his 
father,  when  the  boy  was  ten  years  old.  They 
are  written  in  a  neat  hand  and  read  as  follows: 

"Zanesville,  Ohio,  April  25,  1835. 
"Dear  Mother: 

"It  is  now  spring,  and  the  blossoms  and  the  cher 
ry-trees  are  out,  and  I  expect  we  will  have  some 
cherries,  and  other  fruit;  we  had  no  fruit  last 
year.  When  summer  comes  the  boys  go  in  a  swim 
ming;  they  go  a  fishing,  and  catch  fish,  and  sell 
them.  And  then  comes  autumn,  when  the  leaves 
fall  off  the  trees.  And  then  comes  winter,  then 
you  will  have  to  wear  mittens  or  gloves  to  keep 
your  hands  warm;  in  very  cold  weather  the  river 
freezes  over,  and  the  boys  bind  skates  to  their  feet 
and  amuse  themselves  with  skating.  I  skated 
last  winter,  and  was  much  pleased  with  the  exer 
cise.  Your  affectionate  son, 

"Samuel  S.  Cox." 

"Zanesville,  Ohio,  April  25,  1835. 
"Dear  Father: 

"On  Beasts — The  lion  is  called  the  king  of  the 
beasts,  the  tiger  is  a  fierce  animal  of  the  cat  kind, 
the  elephant  is  the  largest  animal  in  the  world, 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  33 

he  is  very  sensible,  he  will  carry  boys  or  men  on 
his  trunk.  In  India  they  carry  large  burdens;  in 
some  parts  of  the  world  there  are  white  elephants. 
The  rhinoceros  is  a  large  animal.  I  saw  one  in  a 
menagerie  in  this  town;  they  had  a  log  chain 
around  his  neck,  sunk  ten  feet  in  the  ground  to 
keep  him  from  getting  loose;  the  zebra  is  striped; 
it  is  of  the  horse  kind  and  is  very  handsome;  there 
are  many  other  beasts,  but  I  have  not  time  to  de 
scribe  them.  Your  affectionate  son, 

"Samuel  Cox.77 

The  boy  was  sent  to  the  academy  at  Zanesville 
to  prepare  for  admission  to  the  Ohio  University. 
The  academy  principal  was  Professor  Howe,  a 
well  known  and  somewhat  distinguished  educat 
or  of  those  days,  a  man  of  learning  and  cultiva 
tion.  "Samuel,"  says  one  of  his  townsmen  of  that 
period,  "was  always  full  of  his  boyish  pranks, 
even  venturing  sometimes  to  play  tricks  on  hi« 
dignified  father,  for  which  it  is  said  that  his  eld 
est  brother,  Thomas,  used  not  infrequently  to  re 
ceive  the  reproof  and  punishment  rather  than  be 
tray  the  real  culprit,  to  whom  his  self-sacrifice 
would  be  all  unknown.  But  he  was  a  diligent  and 
enthusiastic  student,  who  won  and  kept  a  high 
place  among  his  classmates.  Before  he  had 
passed  out  of  boyhood  he  was  appointed  deputv 
to  his  father,  who  was  then  serving  as  clerk  of 
the  Supreme  Court  and  of  the  Court  of  Common 
Pleas.  Even  at  this  early  age  he  was  so  thorough 
ly  conversant  with  all  the  business  of  the  office 
that  a  great  part  of  it  was  safely  intrusted  to 
him." 

The  official  documents  leading  to  the  appoint- 


34  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

ment  of  this  boy  of  fourteen  to  a  court  clerkship 
follow: 

"The  State  of  Ohio,  Muskingum  County,  ss. : 

"To  the  Honorable  Judges  of  the  Court  of  Com 
mon  Pleas  of  said  county,  at  their  May  term,  A. 
D.  1838: 

"From  the  experience  and  capacity  of  my  son, 
Samuel  S.  Cox,  I  hereby  nominate  him  as  my  Dep 
uty  Clerk  of  said  Court,  and  request  your  Honors 
to  ratify  and  confirm  said  nomination,  pursuant  to 
statute.  By  this  appointment  I  am  well  satisfied 
that  the  public  interest  and  convenience  will  be 
subserved. 

"Given  under  my  hand  this  31st  day  of  May, 
1838. 

"E.  T.  Cox, 
"Clerk  of  said  Court." 

(Appointment  made.) 

"The  State  of  Ohio,  Muskingum  County,  ss. : 

"I,  E.  T.  Cox,  Clerk  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Mus 
kingum  County,  hereby  certify  that  I  have  this  day 
appointed  my  son,  Samuel  S.  Cox,  as  my  Deputy 
Clerk  of  said  Court,  and  request  that  said  appoint 
ment  be  approved  and  confirmed. 

"In  testimony  whereof  I  hereunto  set  my  hand 
and  affix  the  seal  of  said  Supreme  Court,  this  30th 
day  of  October,  1838.  E.  T.  Cox,  Clerk." 

The  following  incident  has  been  preserved  as 
showing  his  interest  in  current  affairs  even  when 
a  mere  child : 

During  the  Black  Hawk  war  supplies  and  blank 
ets  were  being  collected  for  the  use  of  the  volun 
teers  and  those  having  the  matters  in  charge  came 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  35 

to  Mr.  Cox's  house  late  one  night.  Samuel  over 
heard  the  conversation  from  the 'head  of  the  stairs 
and  running  to  his  room  pulled  the  blanket  off 
from  his  bed  and  threw  it  over  the  balustrade  with 
the  exclamation,  "Here,  mother,  give  them  this 
one.  Hurrah!" 

His  patriotism  did  not  cease  with  this  incident, 
and  a  few  years  later  his  elder  brother,  Thomas 
J.  Cox  then  at  college  in  Granville,  writes  him  as 
follows,  under  date  of  July  20, 1839,  at  which  time 
the  younger  brother  was  fourteen,  the  elder  being 
sixteen: 

"So  you  read  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
to  the  Sabbath  School.  I  suppose  you  read  it 
well,  for  a  boy  who  can  read  the  minutes  of  the 
Court  before  judges  and  lawyers  ought  to  read 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  a  great  deal  bet 
ter  where  there  are  only  a  parcel  of  children — and 
besides  a  boy  who  professes  to  be  such  a  great 
friend  to  his  country  as  you  do  ought  to  have  it 
committed  to  memory." 

If  he  had  not  at  that  time  committed  this  prec 
ious  document  to  memory  he  certainly  soon  fol 
lowed  his  brother's  advice,  for  it  is  well  known 
that  as  a  boy  he  learned  by  heart  both  the  Declar 
ation  of  Independence  and  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States. 

"This,"  writes  one  of  his  relatives,  "is  the  first 
authentic  statement  that  I  have  been  able  to  find 
locating  definitely  when  he  began  making  patri 
otic  addresses,  although  it  is  claimed  that  he 
made,  when  much  younger,  speeches  that  were  lit 
erally  stump  speeches,  for  his  only  audience  was 
the  trees  of  the  neighboring  woods." 


36  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

The  reference  in  this  letter  to  the  fact  that  he 
"read  the  minutes  of  the  Court  before  judges  and 
lawyers"  corroborates  statements  made  by  the 
successor  to  his  seat  in  Congress,  the  Honorable 
Amos  J.  Cummings,  that  "at  the  age  of  eleven  he 
was  a  valuable  assistant  to  his  father  in  the  Coun 
ty  Clerk's  office  at  Zanesville.  There  are  men  liv 
ing,"  he  adds,  "who  saw  the  boy  swear  jurors  and 
witnesses,  issue  writs,  and  make  up  journals.  He 
performed  all  the  duties  of  an  expert  clerk  before 
he  was  thirteen  years  old." 

Years  afterward  when  addressing  an  audience 
in  Black's  Music  Hall  in  Zanesville,  Mr.  Cox  said: 

"When  a  boy  I  was  sworn  in  yonder  Court 
House — as  an  assistant  to  my  father,  then  Coun 
ty  Clerk — to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  State 
of  Ohio  and  of  the  United  States.  Since  that 
time  I  have  wandered  all  over  this  country  and  in 
many  climes,  yet  I  have  never  wandered  from  my 
oath  to  support  and  maintain  the  Constitution  of 
these  United  States." 

Meanwhile  he  continued  his  preparation  for  col 
lege.  Among  his  teachers  were  Messrs.  Mears, 
Hobby  and  Fulton.  He  also  studied  under  the 
Rev.  George  C.  Sedgwick,  a  Baptist  minister,  who 
had  his  school  in  the  basement  of  the  First  Bap 
tist  Church  on  Sixth  street,  and  under  Professor 
Howre  of  the  Market  Street  Academy. 

He  was  a  diligent  and  enthusiastic  student,  and 
yet  he  was  by  no  manner  of  means  a  mere  student, 
for  it  is  well  known  that  he  was  full  of  boyish 
pranks. 

Old  residents  of  Zanesville  still  recall  the  pic 
ture  on  the  streets  of  "Sam  Cox  and  his  pony," 


SAM UEL  S/ULLIVAN  COX  37 

as  the  one  on  the  back  of  the  other  dashed  into 
town  at  full  gallop,  from  the  boy's  country  home. 
In  connection  with  that  same  quadruped  and  his 
boy  rider,  the  mother  of  Mr.  Cox  used  to  tell  with 
evident  relish,  this  story:  One  day  as  she  sat  in 
her  parlor  window  sewing,  chancing  to  glance  out 
of  the  window  she  saw  little  Sammy  galloping  up 
the  country  lane  towards  the  house.  The  next 
moment  both  rider  and  pony  were  attempting  to 
make  their  bows  of  obeisance  to  her  ladyship 
from  the  hearth  rug,  in  the  parlor,  where,  the  back 
door  being  opened,  the  youthful  scion,  having  rid 
den  into  the  house,  thought  to  give  his  maternal 
a  surprise  party!  "You,  Samuel!"  was  the  star 
tled  greeting — but  the  jolly  laugh  that  followed 
ended  the  reproof. 

One  of  his  early  schoolmates,  Kev.  S.  D.  Clayton 
of  Dayton,  Ohio,  has  written: 

aHe  and  I  went  to  school  to  Mr.  James  Fulton 
opposite  the  west  end  of  the  Market  House.  We 
all  and  always  called  him  'Captain'  and  such  he 
was  from  the  time  he  was  six  or  seven  years  old. 
He  was  very  small  of  stature  at  that  time,  but  a 
born  leader,  small  as  he  was.  He  was  not  quar 
relsome,  rather  the  reverse,  but  he  would  fight 
like  a  tiger  if  he  was  imposed  upon,  or  if  he  saw 
any  one  wronged,  he  would  pitch  into  a  boy  twice 
his  age  and  five  times  as  large.  His  fighting  qual 
ities  were  magnificent.  It  stirs  my  blood  to  re 
call  his  combats  and  his  victories.  There  was 
nothing  low  or  base  in  his  nature.  There  could 
not  be,  for  he  had  good  blood  in  his  veins,  and  a 
more  chivalrous  soul  was  never  champion  for  the 
weak,  or  struck  stronger  blows  for  his  friends." 


38  SAMUEL  ^ULLIVAN  COX 

It  is  more  than  likely  that  the  title  of  "Cap 
tain"  was  a  surviving  memory  of  a  short  military 
experience  when  he  and  others  of  his  comrades 
organized  the  Zanesville  Lancers,  "in  which,"  to 
quote  a  surviving  member,  "Sam  was  Orderly 
Sergeant." 

Of  his  boyhood  schoolmates  more  than  one  has 
become  famous,  among  them  Justice  William  B. 
Woods  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  the 
Kev.  Dr.  William  Aschmore,  an  eminent  Baptist 
Missionary  who  spent  his  life  in  China,  and  Dr. 
James  M.  Safford,  the  State  Geologist  of  Tennes 
see. 

"His  memory,"  says  one,  "was  marvelous.  As  a 
Sabbath  school  scholar  he  easily  committed  to 
memory  the  entire  book  of  Romans,  and  it  is  said 
he  knew  the  old  twenty-ninth  volume  of  the 
Ohio  Laws  by  heart,  and  that,  later  on,  he  could 
draw  up  any  pleading  without  consulting  Chitty." 
An  Ohio  Congressman,  in  his  tribute  to  his  mem 
ory,  tells  us:  "Mr.  Cox  was  popular  from  his 
earliest  boyhood;  he  was  a  natural  orator,  pos 
sessed  of  an  eloquent,  pathetic  manner  that  never 
failed  to  captivate  the  audience  he  addressed.  He 
was  singled  out  in  his  school-boy  days  to  be  the 
orator  on  each  occasion  that  required  a  speech." 

In  1842,  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  he  entered  the 
Ohio  University,  at  Athens.  He  ranked  with  the 
most  brilliant  of  his  class.  It  is  related  that  dur 
ing  his  stay  in  the  State  University  a  law  suit  be 
tween  the  college  and  the  town  was  decided  in 
favor  of  the  latter,  much  to  the  displeasure  of  the 
students.  Party  spirit  ran  high,  and  the  divisional 
lines  were  as  marked  as  in  fights  between  "towns 
men  and  gownsmen"  in  an  English  university 


\ 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  39 

town.  A  celebration  most  distasteful  to  the  col 
lege  was  decided  on;  a  bonfire  was  to  be  built, 
speeches  made,  and  a  cannon  fired.  The  bonfire 
blazed,  the  speeches  were  made,  but  the  boom  of 
the  cannon  was  not  heard,  the  "great-gun"  of  the 
town,  a  6-pounder,  having  been  prudently  spiked 
the  night  before  by  a  daring  college  boy.  It  was 
not  known  till  long  after  that  the  youth  who  so 
effectually  silenced  the  voice  of  the  cannon  for 
that  and  for  many  succeeding  nights  was  S.  S.  Cox. 


CHAPTER  III. 

COLLEGE   LIFE. 

The  distance  from  Zanesville  to  Athens  in  the 
Hocking  Hills  is  not  great  according  to  our  mod 
ern  idea  of  locomotion,  but  in  1842  there  were  no 
railroads  in  that  part  of  the  country,  and  for  con 
venience  as  well  as  for  economy's  sake  the  future 
statesman  made  his  way  from  home  to  college  on 
the  back  of  his  horse. 

He  was  now  duly  entered  as  a  Freshman  in  the 
Ohio  University. 

Several  letters  addressed  to  his  father  are  ex 
tant,  throwing  light  on  his  life  in  that  institution. 
In  one  of  these  dated  January  30,  1844,  he  writes: 

"I  endeavor  to  improve  every  particle  of  time. 
A  person  cannot  know  how  valuable  time,  an 
hour,  or  a  half,  or  a  quarter,  is  until  they  are  sit 
uated  properly  to  improve  it,  and  then  every  mo 
ment  of  it  is  in  demand.  From  daylight  to  sun 
set  there  is  one  continual  going  if  you  are  regu 
lar  in  your  studies,  and  it  seems  the  very  regular 
ity  acts  as  a  preservation  on  the  health  by  keep 
ing  the  mind  active  and  awake." 

No  longer  a  child,  but  now  a  full  fledged  college 
man  he  was,  as  usual  with  Collegians,  oppressed 
by  the  weight  of  his  own  knowledge.  He  unloads 
a  little  on  his  father,  after  this  style: 

"I  read  a  good  little  work  on  the  'Philosophy  of 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  41 

Li v lag,'  which  I  want  you  to  read.  It  is  written 
by  Caleb  Ticknor,  A.  M.,  M.  D.,  etc.  It  is  no  piece 
of  quackery.  It  condemns  in  toto  your  whole 
system  of  doctoring,  dieting,  studying  your  own 
disens^s,  and  shows  the  remarkable  affinity  be 
tween  the  mind  and  body — it  scouts  at  the  ultra- 
ism  of  the  day  both  in  politics  and  morals  a..s  well 
as  in  diet.  What  we.'e  vbe  good  th\ngs  of  the 
world  placed  around  us  :V??  Would  God  tantalize 
us?  Thus  he  reasons,  bit  roc  deration  neverthe 
less  he  enjoins,  and  he  agrees  with  your  views  in 
everything  as  to  exercise,  etc.  But  I  will  not  re 
view  it  further.  I  wish  you  would  read  it,  it  is  in 
the  Athenaeum." 

The  value  of  money  had  evidently  begun  to 
dawn  upon  the  student,  for  he  writes: 

"As  to  'Domestic  Economy'  I  think  that  from 
my  former  habits  and  associations  I  was  not  in 
clined  to  value  money  as  much  as  the  filthy  lucre 
should  be.  Yet,  I  know,  that  I  have  done  the 
best  down  here.  You  are  not  aware  and  couldn't 
be  till  you  were  here,  how  easily  money  goes 
without,  too,  a  single  useless  thing,  or  without 
that  which  is  necessary.  Now,  I  left  my  umbrel 
la  at  home,  and  would  not  buy  any  for  three 
weeks,  but  there  is  such  continual  wet  weather 
that  I  must  have  it.  There's  coal,  too,  and  the 
bill  for  the  horses  at  General  Brown's,  and  soci 
ety  expenses,  paying  for  my  bureau  in  advance, 
and  all  those  little  things  summed  up  I  find  my 
?10.00  gone  almost  imperceptibly,  and  yet  I  know 
I  have  not  paid  out  money  except  when  needed." 
Hardly  an  exceptional  experience. 

But  he  was  growing  restless  and  casting  about 
for  a  change.  To  his  father  he  writes: 


42  SAMUEL  S(ULLIVAN  COX 

"Although  I  wrote  you  yesterday,  circum 
stances  have  occurred  which  require  I  should 
write  again.  Do  not  think  I  am  troubling  you 
too  much  about  my  future  course.  It  is  not  a 
very  trifling  matter  where  I  am  to  pass  the  re 
mainder  of  my  collegiate  course,  and  it  should  re 
ceive  a  degree  of  consideration,  you  will  admit, 
correspondent  to  its  importance. 

"I  wrote  you  I  had  determined  on  leaving  Ath 
ens.  I  can  spend  my  time  profitably  by  reading, 
studying  for  debates,  etc.,  and  can  easily  enter 
junior  at  Cannonsburgh.  If  I  trouble  you  too 
much,  I  have  a  tolerably  good  reason,  you  will 
admit,  and  I  hope  you  will  give  me  credit  for 
wishing,  at  least,  to  do  the  best  with  the  least  in 
convenience  and  expense.  But  I  am  perfectly  at 
your  will  in  regard  to  my  future  course." 

During  a  temporary  absence  from  class  duties 
at  Ohio  University  one  of  the  faculty  of  that  in 
stitution  wrote  to  the  young  student's  father: 

"Allow  us  to  express  the  hope  that  your  son  will 
not  be  detained  from  his  studies  longer  than  nec 
essary.  There  is  not  a  youth  of  his  age  in  the  in 
stitution  at  this  time  doing  better  than  he,  and 
it  is  very  important  that  he  should  not  lose  his 
standing  in  his  class.  He  is  as  zealous  and  suc 
cessful  in  his  studies  as  any  parent  could  wish, 
and  if  he  continues  in  the  same  course  in  which 
he  has  commenced,  your  expectations  will  be  most 
fully  realized." 

The  student,  for  the  remainder  of  his  course, 
was  casting  his  eyes  eastward.  To  his  father  he 
thus  reveals  his  hopes  and  aspirations: 

"I  trust  and  hope  you  will  be  enabled  to  send 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  43 

me  the  remaining  time  at  an  Eastern  Institution. 
I  prefer  Dartmouth,  though  Brown  would  prob 
ably  be  as  well.  I  am  resolved  to  get  an  educa 
tion,  and  I  don't  want  to  do  it  half,  if  you  only 
encourage  me  and  assist  me  by  your  means.  The 
education  is  for  life,  that  I  know;  it  is,  too,  the 
means  of  life,  and  these  means  will  be  great  in 
proportion  to  the  education,  that  I  know.  Will 
you  not  give  me  the  right  encouragement?  I 
know  you  will.  Some  fathers,  I  know,  would 
glory  in  having  their  lazy,  hanging-about,  doing- 
nothing  sons  go  to  college,  even  should  they  go 
through  as  a  drag  and  come  out  asses." 

His  purpose  to  go  to  Brown  was  approved  by 
Professor  Mather,  a  member  of  the  faculty  at 
Ohio  University,  as  this  letter  shows: 

"I  mentioned  Browrn  University  to  Professor 
Mather  and  he  told  me  that  he  was  there  himself, 
at  about  my  age,  twenty  years  ago.  He  intended 
to  graduate  there  and  was  in  the  course  when  he 
received  his  West  Point  appointment.  He  speaks 
highly  of  it,  as  it  was  then,  and  some  few  years 
ago,  on  a  visit,  he  said,  it  had  increased  greatly 
and  materially.  In  fact  these  institutions  which 
are  endowed  are  always  the  best,  and  those  insti 
tutions  in  the  East  are  constantly  on  the  increase 
in  order  to  keep  up  with  the  go-ahead  age.  He 
concluded  by  saying  there  was  not  a  more 
desirable  Instituiton  for  thorough  scholarship  in 
the  country,  and  he  is  a  man  who  understands  the 
colleges  of  the  country.  Perhaps  on  account  of 
his  being  a  Baptist  he  speaks  so  highly,  which  is 
natural,  you  know." 

In  regard  to  his  progress  he  says: 


44  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

"I  am  getting  along  very  well  here,  kept  very 
busy;  all  my  leisure  moments  I  take  to  exercise, 
and  sometimes  I  woo  the  Muses.  I  have  finished 
my  poem  for  Spring  Exhibition.  But  there  is  not 
much  encouragement  here  to  literary  attain 
ment.  It  is  a  pleasant  little  recreation  some 
times  to  scribble  a  little  poetry,  it  not  only  re 
fines  the  imagination,  but  a  good  set  of  wares  can 
be  garnered  up  in  the  store-house  of  the  mind.  1 
do  it  more  to  give  my  writing  in  general  an  easy 
flow,  a  smoothness.  I  know  I  have  no  talent  for 
it,  but  I  can  do  something  as  well  as  others.  I 
contribute  weekly  to  the  paper  here.  Sometimes 
poetry  and  sometimes  prose.  I  send  mother 
rhymes  on  'A  Moment' — The  Value  of  'A  Mo 
ment,'  doubtless  I  have  learned  from  her  mater 
nal  advice — how  I  practice  in  regard  to  what  I 
write,  mother  is  dubious,  I  reckon.  The  first 
piece  I  wrote  I  signed  <M.  P.'  (Maternal  Poetry) 
the  last  <D' — the  gossips  here  have  been  compar 
ing  the  merits  of  their  respective  authors.  I  look 
on  and  grin.  The  least  thing  of  that  kind  excites 
talk  here  in  this  scaly  vale  of  mud." 

Politics  had  not  been  forgotten,  and  he  adds: 

"I  would  have  no  particular  objections  if  my 
Democratic  grandfather  (Samuel  Sullivan)  or 
some  other  Democrat  would  so  far  contribute  to 
the  youthful  aspirations  of  a  young  Democrat  like 
me,  as  to  send  me  Duff  Green's  new  paper  started 
lately  at  New  York  and  called  the  'Free  Trader.' 
I  saw  a  number  of  it.  Oh!  but  he  is  a  scorcher,  he 
lashes  with  no  uncommon  virulence." 

In  a  letter  to   his   cousin,    Miss   Julia  Cox,  of 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  45 

Zanesville  (Mrs.  A.  W.  Perley),  written  contempo 
raneously  with  the  letters  just  quoted,  he  says: 

"I  am  reviewing  all  my  former  studies  in  order 
to  enter  Brown  University,  Rhode  Island,  where 
an  indulgent  father  intends  me  to  go,  in  order  to 
put  a  finish,  or  rather  rub  off  the  rough  corners 
of  his  son's  education — It  makes  me  feel  four 
cubits  and  a  span  higher  than  I  ever  was  (and  you 
know,  I  am  not  remarkably  tall)." 

He  has  but  little  faith,  if  any,  in  the  University 
in  Athens,  for  he  writes: 

"Going  East!  Think  of  that  Julia,  that's  some 
recompense  for  sticking  to  Athens  as  long  as  its 
soul  and  body  could  hold  together  —  For  under 
stand  me,  the  College  is  the  soul,  —  Athens, 
minus  the  college  is  the  body — when  the  College 
goes  the  way  of  all  the  Earth,  as  it  probably  will, 
after  this  season,  it  leaves  Athens,  the  body,  de 
funct." 

The  town  itself  is  uncongenial  to  him.  He  de 
scribes  it  as:  "A  murky,  cloud-covered,  uncomfort 
able  outpost  upon  the  confines  of  Barbarism." 

Mr.  Cox's  wonderful  power  of  description,  often 
illustrated  in  later  years,  crops  out  in  the  follow 
ing,  one  of  his  letters  home  from  Athens: 

"The  wind  whistles  without — the  blackness  of 
darkness  shrouds  the  College, — O!  how  it  roars 
amidst  the  old  sycamores  over  Hocking;  now  it 
comes  in  gusts,  fierce,  scowling,  piercing — slam! 
bang!  bang!  goes  the  doors  of  the  empty  rooms — 
rattle — rattle — goes  the  windows — whiz-z-  goes 
the  shrill  winds — merrily  dances  my  fire  in  the 
stove — merrily  dances  my  pen  on  the  paper.1' 

Another  quotation  must  be  given  from  an  Ath- 


46  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

ens  letter  for  it  is  significant  of  his  appreciation  of 
the  value  of  mental  training.  With  reference  to 
one  of  his  friends  at  home  he  says: — 

"Does  he  still  retain  his  reputation  as  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  Fashionable  world?  *  *  *  I 
would  not  care  three  straws  how  I  dressed,  what  I 
eat  or  drink,  provided  I  could  revel  sufficiently  in 
my  own  thoughts.  One  can  by  a  little  training 
make  a  little  world  of  their  own  thoughts,  and 
place  himself  as  regent  over  them.  He  can  then 
shut  himself  in  his  room  and  say  with  Crusoe,  *I 
am  lord  of  all  I  survey' — and  not  be  tormented 
with  a  wish  besides." 

A  few  months  come  and  go  and  he  is  in  Provi 
dence,  a  student  in  Brown  University.  Under 
date  of  June  25, 1844,  he  writes  to  his  father: — 

"I  have  now  been  here  two  months,  and  have 
fairly  tested  the  college  and  the  land  of  the  Yan 
kees,  and  I  cannot  but  say,  that  I  am  still  satisfied. 
Indeed,  I  came  with  the  intention  to  be  satisfied, 
and  that  is  the  great  secret.  *  *  *  Although 
I  have  had  not  a  little  to  discourage  me,  which  I 
thought  proper  not  to  write,  although  there  axe 
numerous  disadvantages  and  mortifications,  al 
ways  attendent  upon  entering  into  a  strange  land, 
more  than  most  persons  would  imagine,  yet  I  still 
get  along  swimmingly." 

His  reference  to  "Domestic  Economy"  in  an 
earlier  letter  already  quoted  from,  finds  its  count 
erpart  in  the  present  communication.  The  ques 
tion  of  finance  is  always  an  important  one,  and 
especially  so  to  a  college  student.  The  details 
mentioned  are  not  without  interest  as  showing  the 
expenditures  of  students  in  college  half  a  century 
ago.  He 


a 

G. 


e 


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if 

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2! 

- 

$1 


SAMUEL  RULLIVAN  COX  47 

"I  had  paid  all  my  money,  which  was  $10,  before 
you  wrote,  to  the  tailor,  shoemaker,  and  booksell 
er,  I  had  not  money  to  pay  my  postage,  or  for  my 
boot  mending.  But  after  paying  the  $10,  which  I 
borrowed,  $1.00  to  the  shoemaker  for  my  boots, 
$1.00  for  a  covering  for  my  caput,  and  some  other 
little  fixtures,  I  have  left  about  $7.50,  my  sum  total 
in  hand.  The  expenses  will  cost  me  more  than  I 
anticipated.  My  clothing,  etc.,  which  I  always  ob 
tained  at  home,  increases  it  considerably.  Stu 
dents  here  say  that  with  the  utmost  parsimony, 
you  cannot  get  along  (on)  less  than  $250  per  year, 
after  buying  all  necessary  preliminaries.  It  is  ex 
pensive  here,  I  know,  but  to  go  to  a  college,  re 
quires  money.  The  money  ($7.50)  I  now  have,  will 
barely  suffice  to  pay  my  washerwoman  and  other 
expenses  at  the  close  of  the  term." 

In  the  choice  of  a  Greek-letter  fraternity,  the 
new  student  from  Ohio  gave  the  preference  to  the 
Delta  Phi,  whose  invitation  to  become  a  member 
he  accepted. 

In  a  letter  to  a  sister,  dated  Brown  University, 
Providence,  November  25th,  1845,  Mr.  Cox  gives 
his  unique  experience  as  a  temperance  lecturer. 
He  was  then  in  his  Senior  year.  He  writes:— 

"There  was  to  be  a  grand  temperance  oratorio 
(about  40  singers),  after  the  speaking  (at  Me 
chanic's  Hall),  and  the  house  wras  densely  crowd 
ed,  mostly  with  females.  The  aisles  were  full — 
some  1,500  or  2,000  people  present.  I  did  not  in 
tend  to  speak — Avas  standing  up  in  the  aisle  with 
some  students  looking  at  the  girls;  w^hen  someone 
came  pushing  through  with  a  little  trunk  in  his 
hand,  declaring  he  had  to  speak  and  must  get 


48  SAMUEL  S,ULLIVAN  COX 

through.  'Oho!  Buckeye/  says  I.  'Hallo!  strang 
er!'  says  he.  'Bear,  or  I  am  no  Buckeye/  says  I. 
'Eight,  young  man — give  us  your  hand — see  this 
cane?  John  N.  Bear  on  it.' 

"  'Cox  is  my  name,'  says  I.  The  Buckeyes  em 
brace — push  through  the  crowd,  Cox  in  the  lead. 
Everybody  staring.  I  told  the  president  of  the 
meeting  who  was  present.  He  had  heard  of  me, 
and  said  I  must  speak  too,  and  introduced  the 
Buckeye  Blacksmith.  Well,  I  was  stirred  up- 
made  a  speech  of  20  minutes  —  introduced  Bear 
with  a  gusto.  He  made  a  perfect  roarer  of  a 
speech,  astonishing  the  people  considerably.  He 
got  up  a  little  respectability  for  me,  after  I  had 
soft-soaped  him — told  about  my  taking  him  with 
a  habeas  corpus  or  something  in  his  intemperate 
days — said  I  was  Clerk  of  the  Court  at  Zanesville, 
etc.,  etc.  Last  Monday  I  had  a  special  invitation 
to  lecture.  I  signed  the  pledge,  and  as  the  doctor 
was  away  with  Dr.  Judson,  I  prepared  myself 
well;  spoke  40  minutes  to  a  very  refined  audience 
— was  nicely  complimented  by  the  president — but 
that  is  my  last  one  for  some  time.  Our  exhibition 
comes  off  Saturday.  We  have  been  practicing  all 
the  afternoon,  and  the  way  we  are  drilled!''  In  the 
same  letter  he  more  than  once  expressed  a  longing 
for  pumpkin  pies,  such  as  he  had  at  home.  "I 
must  say,"  he  writes  to  his  sister,  "if  I  have  a  fail 
ing,  it  is  pumpkin-pieward." 

Of  another  college  experience  he  writes:— 

"I  made  my  debut  here  on  the  stage — spoke  a 

part  of  my  Fourier  speech,  which  the  Professor  did 

not  like  as  to  the  sentiment,  but  which  brought 

down  two  rounds  of  applause  from  the  students.  I 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  49 

never  felt  so  elated  in  my  life,  my  manner  of 
speaking  was  so  different  and  I  put  all  my  soul 
in  it,  (as  I  had  written  it  myself  and  consequently 
felt  what  I  said)  and  there  was  so  much  of  the  free 
and  easy,  Western  stump-speech-manner  about  it 
that  it  took.  The  Professor  told  me  not  to  speak 
any  more  such  things  as  Fourierisin,  but  said  he 
saw  some  fine  promises  in  my  way  of  speaking.  He 
did  not  know  I  wrote  it,  and  as  we  are  required  to 
make  selections  from  others  till  next  term,  he  sup 
posed  it  somebody  else's.  The  students  wanted  to 
know  where  I  got  it,  as  there  was  considerable 
fun  and  novelty  in  it.  I  stopped  once  in  the  mid 
dle,  having  forgotten  the  next  sentence,  and  they 
commenced  stamping,  and  it  put  me  considerably 
out — and  some,  most  fellows,  would  have  been 
abashed  and  took  their  seats,  but  I  stood  it  and  at 
last  got  through.  So  much  for  my  Entre!  They 
think  here  I  am  an  odd  genius,  I  don't  visit  any 
body — stick  to  my  room — mind  my  own  business 
— walk  as  straight  as  a  lightning  rod,  and  as  in 
dependent  as  a  woodchuck.  I  can  put  on  all 
kinds  of  airs,  and  they  will  lay  it  all  to  Western 
manners  and  characteristics.  They  generally  sup 
pose  we  are  mostly  heathens  out  West,  without 
refinement  and  taste  for  literature — and  the  speci 
mens  of  Western  students  here,  are  by  no  means 
flattering." 

His  classmate  Mr.  Frank  W.  Anthony  of  Mat- 
tawan,  Mich.,  describes  this  incident  as  follows: — 

"The  class  had  been  trained  for  nearly  two  years 
by  our  prim  and  precise  Professor  of  Ehetoric, 
Professor  Gammell,  into  his  peculiar  and  polished 
style  of  speaking  and  writing.  S.S.  had  doubtless 


50  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

had  triumphs  at  the  cross  roads  schoolhouse  of  the 
West.  You  can  imagine  the  effect  of  his  first 
speech  in  the  college  class  upon  Professor  and  stu 
dents.  It  was  the  first  stump  speech  any  of  us 
had  heard.  We  all  tried  hard  to  control  our  risi- 
bles.  It  was  impossible  after  a  few  sentences.  I 
see  now  the  determined  look  that  came  into  the 
new  student's  face  as  the  laugh  grew  louder  and 
longer.  It  said,  while  he  completed  his  speech, 
'laugh  if  you  will,  the  power  is  in  me  and  you  shalJ 
yet  respect  it.'  When  completed  he  leaped  from 
the  platform,  regardless  of  the  steps,  and  made  for 
his  seat.  As  soon  as  Professor  Gammell  could 
control  himself  and  the  uproar,  he  said,  'It  is  cus 
tomary,  Cox,  for  the  student  to  pause  at  the  foot 
of  the  platform  for  criticism.  We  will  excuse  you 
this  time.  Next.'  " 

Another  class  mate,  the  Rev.  James  C.  Fletcher, 
writes : — 

"Cox  liked  to  take  a  hand  even  in  his  student 
days  in  addressing  a  crowd;  and  on  one  occasion 
he  made  a  stump  speech  to  the  assembled  Demo 
crats  in  Providence,  E.  I.,  in  connection  with 
Thomas  W.  Dorr,  who  in  1842  endeavored  to 
change  the  old  government  of  Rhode  Island  by 
forcible  means — for  which  Dorr,  being  overwhelm 
ingly  defeated  at  the  polls  and  elsewhere,  had  to 
suffer  for  it  in  prison.  The  Democrats  as  well  as 
the  old  Whigs  were  overwhelmingly  against  Dorr. 
Nevertheless  when  agitation  began  in  regard  to 
liberating  Dorr  from  the  penitentiary,  'Sam'  (as 
we  called  him),  with  the  pluck  that  always  char 
acterized  him,  took  the  part  of  the  small  party,  de 
manding  the  pardoning  of  Dorr,  and,  actually,  to 


SAMUEL  S,ULLIVAN  COX  51 

the  chagrin  of  the  faculty  (all  Anti-Dorrites) 
<6iam'  addressed  the  'unterrified'  in  the  streets. 
'Sam'  always  took  the  part  of  the  'under  dog'  in 
the  fight."  " 

Dr.  Charles  K.  Cullen  of  Gaines  Mills,  Va., 
writes  :— 

"We  sat  beside  each  other  three  years.  While 
we  were  at  Brown  the  Liberty  party  was  forming 
and  the  Garrisons  were  in  full  blast.  In  the  Meth 
odist  Church  (the  only  denomination  at  that  time 
very  radical)  Abbey  Kelley,  Abbey  Folsom,  S.  S. 
Foster  and  Wendell  Phillips  were  to  speak.  They 
abused  Dr.  Wayland,  who  was  carrying  on  the 
controversy  with  Dr.  Fuller,  on  the  subject  of 
Slavery,  but  could  not  tolerate  the  Garrison  set. 
The  doctor  advised  the  students  not  to  attend  the 
meeting,  as  he  knew  they  would  commence  by 
abusing  himself,  calling  him  anti-slavery  hypo 
crite,  etc.  This  made  the  whole  body  of  students 
decide  to  go  and  take  possession  of  the  meeting— 
to  allow  the  Abolitionists  to  speak  fifteen  minutes 
and  the  students  thirty  minutes — to  hiss  them  and 
applaud  the  students.  Sam  made  a  rousing  speech 
— so  did  Dr.  J.  Wheaton  Smith,  now  of  Philadel 
phia.  Philips  was  severe  on  the  students  and  told 
them  they  might  be  as  silly  as  geese  or  venomous 
as  serpents,  he  would  speak  if  they  staid  till  mid 
night.  We  generally  did  for  several  nights." 

Cox  freely  gives  his  opinion  of  his  associates. 
He  says: 

"They  judge  of  a  fellow's  respectability  greatly 
by  his  dress  here.  *  *  *  There  are  some  mon 
strous  mean  fellows  among  the  Yankees.  Again 
there  are  some  fine  fellows — good — open-hearted 


52  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  cox 

— warm-hearted  students — in  my  class.  Some  of 
the  best  families  of  N.  E.  and  the  Union  are  my 
classmates.  A  grandson  of  General  Greene;  a  son 
of  Com.  Morris,  of  Washington,  D.  C.,  Dr.  Way- 
land's  son;  Professor  Goddard's  two  sons." 

It  will  not  be  out  of  place  at  this  point  to  con 
trast  some  of  the  foregoing  with  opinions  of  his 
classmates  on  the  young  man  from  the  west.  It  is 
true  that  they  are  of  recent  date  and  perhaps  have 
been  somewhat  influenced  by  the  lapse  of  time, — 
still  they  are  of  interest. 

Judge  Franklin  J.  Dickman  of  Cleveland,  Ohio, 
writes: — 

"I  have  a  most  distinct  recollection  of  his  per 
sonality,  as  we  entered  Brown  University  almost 
at  the  same  time,  just  before  the  Sophomore  year 
closed  in  1844.  Entering  as  we  did  at  that  late 
day  in  the  college  course — he  coming  from  Ohio 
and  myself  from  Virginia — we  were  naturally 
drawn  together  as  two  interlopers,  and  in  a  short 
time  became  exceedingly  well  acquainted  with 
each  other.  From  his  first  entrance  in  college,  he 
showed  a  marked  proclivity  to  politics  and  politi 
cal  studies,  and  it  was  anticipated  that  he  would 
have  a  distinguished  political  career.  In  the  Lit 
erary  Society  to  which  he  belonged,  he  at  once 
took  rank  as  a  leading  debater,  and  always  enliv 
ened  the  debate  by  his  overflowing  wit  and  hu 
mor.  His  mind  worked  with  uncommon  rapidity, 
and  he  was  thereby  enabled  to  find  much  time  for 
general  reading  after  preparing  for  the  exercises 
of  the  class  room.  While  his  scholarship  was 
creditable  in  the  Greek  and  Latin  classics,  he 
stood  especially  prominent  as  an  English  belles- 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  53 

lettres  scholar;  and  in  the  Junior  and  Senior  years, 
he  was  awarded  the  first  premium  for  excellence 
in  English  composition.  But  while  he  was  en 
dowed  with  great  quickness  and  versatility  in  the 
acquisition  of  varied  knowledge,  he  did  not  for 
get  that  there  is  no  excellence  without  much  labor. 
No  one  ever  saw  him  idle  during  study  hours.  He 
was  a  constant  attendant  at  the  University  Lib 
rary,  and  his  chief  pleasure  seemed  to  be  in  gath 
ering  stores  of  information  for  future  use." 

Judge  Thomas  Durfee,  who,  for  many  years  was 
Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Ehode  Is 
land,  says: 

"I  knew  Cox  very  well  when  he  was  in  College, 
I  think  he  did  not  enter  until  in  the  Sophomore 
year.  He  quickly  made  a  strong  impression.  He 
was  a  superior  student  in  the  regular  course  of 
studies,  buc  did  not  limit  himself  to  those  studies, 
but  pursued  a  wide  course  of  reading  outside  of 
them.  He  wrote  several  prize  essays,  and  was 
always  successful  in  taking  the  first  prize,  I  think, 
whenever  he  competed.  He  excelled  especially  in 
writing  and  oratory,  and  was  even  then  an  excel 
lent  ex-tempore  speaker  and  debater.  His  mind 
had  already  turned  to  politics  and  his  aspirations 
were  for  a  public  career,  such  as  he  subsequently 
pursued.  He  was  much  sought  after  whenever  an 
address  was  to  be  made.  He  was  also  very  com 
panionable  and  popular  in  a  social  way;  very 
witty  and  ready  in  anecdote  and  repartee.  It 
was  generally  felt,  both  by  his  classmates  and 
others,  that  he  would  attain  distinction/-' 

Of  his  career  at  Brown  University,  Prof.  Franci* 


54  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

Way  land,  who  now  fills  the  chair  of  jurisprudence 
in  Yale  University,  says: 

"Active  in  mind  and  body,  capable  of  earnest 
and  continuous  study,  yet  delighting  in  fun  and 
frolic,  wholly  unconventional  in  dress  and  deport 
ment;  a  pronounced  political  partisan  but  not  of 
fensive  in  his  frequent  utterances — for  he  was  al 
ways  'on  the  stump' — 'Sam  Cox'  became,  even  be 
fore  the  close  of  his  first  college  year,  the  most 
prominent  member  of  his  class.  His  favorite 
field  was  the  college  debating  society,  from  the 
meetings  of  which  he  was  rarely  absent.  Prob 
ably  none  of  his  comrades  so  often  joined  in  the 
discussions.  Undoubtedly  in  the  Saturday  after 
noon  debates  at  the  'United  Brothers'  he  laid  the 
foundation  of  that  familiarity  with  parliamentary 
procedure  and  that  readiness  in  impromptu  ad 
dress  which  characterized  his  long  and  distin 
guished  congressional  career.  All  who  knew  him 
well  during  his  college  course — and  his  warm 
friendships  were  by  no  means  confined  to  his  own 
class — predicted  for  him  a  brilliant  future." 

Dr.  August  Shurtleff  of  Brookline,  Mass., 
writes : 

"Cox  joined  our  class  in  the  Sophomore  year, 
and  won  our  hearts  at  once.  He  was  one  of  the 
most  genial  kind-hearted  and  witty  men  I  ever 
knew.  The  Professors  all  liked  him,  and  when  he 
asked  funny  questions  sometimes,  never  reproved 
him.  I  think  he  was  about  medium  as  a  scholar^ 
certainly  not  less.  He  was  always  talking  poli 
tics.  I  have  a  class-book  in  which  my  nearest 
friends  wrote  a  sentiment  over  their  autographs 
— It  is  before  me  now.  He  says,  he  has  always 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  55 

been  celebrated  as  an  unterrified  Democrat.  That 
there  was  a  tradition  in  his  family,  that  when  he 
was  born  a  scroll  of  fire  was  seen  extending 
around  the  top  of  the  bed-posts  on  which  ap 
peared  the  legend  'Vox  populi  Suprema  Lex/ 
He  looked  like  and  always  reminded  me  of  Dr. 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  and  like  him  showed  his 
under  teeth  when  he  laughed,  which  was  about 
all  the  time.  He  was  a  dear  good  fellow." 

It  is  clear  that  he  was  a  favorite  with  his  class 
mates,  and  at  the  same  time  that  his  sterling  qual 
ities  were  appreciated  by  the  faculty. 

Writes  one  of  his  classmates:  "A  persistent 
questioner  of  President  Wayland  in  recitation  in 
intellectual  and  moral  philosophy,  sometimes  con 
suming  half  the  recitation  hour  in  this  almost  mu 
tual  debate." 

Another  has  this  testimony:  "He  was  not  only 
liked  by  his  fellow  students,  but  by  the  faculty, 
and  I  know  that  Dr.  Francis  Wayland  thought 
very  highly  of  him." 

President  Wayland's  regard  for  his  pupil  was 
thoroughly  reciprocated.  Indeed  in  after  years, 
Mr.  Cox  gave  full  credit  to  his  preceptor  for  the 
methodical  way  in  which  he  prepared  his  speeches 
And  books. 

Col.  William  Goddard.  a  well  known  merchant 
of  Providence,  K.  L,  and  subsequent  to  1888  the 
Chancellor  of  his  alma  mater,  says: 

"When  he  came  under  the  personal  instruction 
of  that  great  teacher,  President  Wayland,  he  dis 
played  such  intellectual  gifts  and  such  originality 
of  thought  that  Doctor  Wayland  was  much  drawn 


56  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

towards  him  and  loved  to  lead  him  into  discus 
sions  upon  the  questions  before  the  class." 

Writes  Reuben  A.  Guild,  Librarian  of  Brown: 
•'Mr.  Cox's  subject  on  graduating  was  'Hero-Wor 
ship.'  I  remember  it  to  this  day,  and  how  elo 
quent  he  was  on  the  stage." 

As  to  his  literary  methods,  Mr.  Cox  said  to  a 
friend : 

"Some  of  my  work  I  have  to  write  with  my  own 
hand.  I  find  that  when  I  have  an  elaborate  de 
scription  to  make  or  some  very  careful  matter  to 
prepare  I  can  do  it  better  by  writing  it  myself. 
I  do  not  begin  my  work  until  I  am  ready  for  it: 
and  as  you  ask  me  the  secret  of  my  doing  so  much 
work  I  will  tell  you  that  it  all  lies  in  method  and 
system.  I  went  to  school  at  Brown  University 
and  there  came  in  contact  with  Dr.  Wayland. 
The  Doctor  was  a  great  advocate  of  thought  anal 
ysis,  and  he  trained  his  students  to  make  an  out 
line  of  everything  they  took  up.  In  this  way  we 
were  trained  to  think  analytically,  and  I  find  that 
the  moment  I  take  up  a  subject  the  thoughts  be 
gin  to  fall  into  their  appropriate  places.  In  mak 
ing  a  speech  on  the  floor  of  the  house  I  can  see  the 
end  before  I  begin.  Here  in  this  book  I  made  the 
skeleton  before  I  wrote  a  chapter.  I  then  out 
lined  the  contents  of  the  various  chapters,  and  I 
am  now  filling  in  the  flesh  and  polishing  up  the 
skin  by  dictation." 

A  few  statements  concerning  his  class  rank 
must  be  added.  Dr.  J.  Wheaton  _Smith  of  Phila 
delphia  writes: 

"We  were  members  of  the  same  societies  and 
near  neighbors  as  to  rooms  at  the  University.  He 


SAMUEL  S,ULLIVAN  COX  57 

was  a  witty,  genial  fellow,  but  also  a  close  and  in 
dustrious  student,  almost  the  only  man  I  remem 
ber  of  my  college  friends  who  objected  on  prin 
ciple  to  light  reading  as  a  waste  of  time.  Several 
of  his  vacations  were  spent  in  writing  essays  for 
college  prizes,  quite  a  number  of  which  he  cap 
tured." 

On  the  other  hand  Mr.  Frank  W.  Anthony 
writes : 

"He  had  apparently  no  ambition  for  high  class 
standing,  no  taste  for  mathematics,  and  sought  ev 
ery  opportunity  to  make  speeches  on  any  and  all 
subjects.  *  *  *  *  Speaking  and  writing 
were  his  especial  pursuits.  General  scholarship 
in  these  lines  rather  than  the  college  ruts.  When 
he  wrote  his  prize  essay  on  the  'Fairy  Queen'  in 
his  Junior  year  all  conceded  first  prize  to  him  from 
the  start.  So  had  he  impressed  his  merits  upon 
his  classmates  in  a  year  from  his  entrance." 

Another  classmate,  Col.  William  Goddard, 
writes : 

"He  came  to  Brown  University  to  get  an  educa 
tion  and  he  got  it.  He  made  upon  his  classmates 
the  impression  of  a  very  brilliant  man  and  he  was 
considered  one  of  the  ablest  members  of  the  class. 
In  debate  he  was  facile  princeps.  His  essays  and 
orations  were  truly  original  and  brilliant.  *  * 
He  graduated  with  honor  and  his  name  is  always 
mentioned  with  respect  by  the  few  classmates 
who  have  survived  the  half  century  which  has 
elapsed  since  we  parted." 

The  Rev.  James  C.  Fletcher  sums  up  his  college 
career  under  the  following  four  heads: 

"He  was  an  earnest  student,  and  stood  well  up  in 


58  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

the  first  half  of  his  class.  Excelled  in  rhetorical 
studies. 

"He  was  exceedingly  popular  with  both  faculty 
and  students. 

"He  was  cheerful,  bubbling  over  with  fun,  but  he 
impressed  me  most  by  his  seriousness. 

"He  was  a  man  loyal  to  his  college  friendships, 
and  was  always  full  of  sympathy." 

Honorable  James  B.  Angell,  president  of  the 
University  of  Michigan  and  lately  Minister  to 
Turkey,  who  entered  Brown  as  a  freshman,  just  as 
Mr.  Cox  was  entering  his  Senior  year,  gives  the 
following  full  and  interesting  account  of  his  col 
lege  career : 

"As  my  college  room  was  near  Mr.  Cox's,  I  soon 
had  the  pleasure  not  only  of  making  his  acquaint 
ance,  but  also  of  being  admitted  to  his  friendship. 
This  was  a  privilege  which  I  greatly  prized.  He 
was  then  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  eminent 
writers,  and  by  all  odds  as  the  most  brilliant  de 
bater,  in  college.  His  style  was  already  mature. 
It  was  terse,  sparkling,  and  epigrammatic.  His 
wit  illumined  his  most  weighty  and  serious 
speeches.  It  was  always  so  free  from  malice  that 
his  opponents  in  debate  could  share  in  the  enjoy 
ment  of  it.  As  I  was  a  member  of  the  same  de 
bating  society  with  him,  the  'United  Brothers/ 
and  indeed  largely  through  his  influence  was  in 
duced  to  join  it,  I  frequently  had  the  pleasure  of 
hearing  him  take  part  in  discussions.  He  was  a 
regular  attendant  on  the  meetings,  and  rarely 
failed  to  participate  in  the  debates.  He  improved 
every  opportunity  to  train  himself  by  practice  in 
the  art  of  public  speaking.  He  readily  accepted 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  50 

invitations  which  came  to  him  from  outside  the 
college  to  address  audiences  on  matters  of  public 
interest.  On  the  fourth  of  July,  1846,  he  gave  an 
oration  before  the  college,  which  was  considered 
one  of  his  most  successful  and  brilliant  discours 
es.  He  did  not  study  for  class  rank,  though  his 
general  scholarship  was  good.  But  no  student 
worked  more  industriously.  He  gave  most  of  his 
time,  however,  to  the  study  of  English  and  Ameri 
can  history  and  political  economy.  He  was,  I 
think,-  much  impressed,  as  most  students  were,  by 
the  instruction  he  received  from  President  Way- 
land,  especially  by  the  free  trade  doctrines  set 
forth  in  the  President's  work  on  Political 
Economy.  He  seemed  to  be  preparing  him 
self  for  entering  on  political  life.  He  gave 
full  promise  of  all  he  subsequently  ac 
complished  in  his  public  career.  When  he  left 
college,  we  all  confidently  expected  that  he  would 
attain  to  great  eminence  in  public  life.  His  at 
tractive  social  qualities  made  him  a  great  favorite 
in  college.  He  was  brimful  of  innocent  fun.  He 
had  considerable  skill  with  his  pencil  in  carica 
ture.  He  was  an  agile  participant  in  the  sports 
of  the  ball  ground.  W^herever  one  met  him, 
whether  in  athletic  contests,  in  social  life,  or  in  in 
tellectual  tournaments,  there  was  an  abounding 
vitality  and  effervescent  good  nature  in  him, 
which  made  him  a  most  stimulating  and  enjoy 
able  companion.  I  am  sure  that  all  of  his  con 
temporaries  in  college  have  cherished,  as  I  cher 
ished,  the  most  pleasing  recollections  of  their 
companionship  with  him  in  the  days  of  his  stu 
dent  life." 


GO  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

The  month  he  completed  his  twenty-second  year 
found  Mr.  Cox  a  graduate  of  Brown  University 
with  high  honors.  Both  faculty  and  students  pre 
dicted  for  the  young  alumnus  a  brilliant  future. 
He  returned  to  Ohio  to  commence  the  real  battle  of 
life. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

CHOOSING   A   CAREER. 

Samuel  S.  Cox's  early  experience  in  his  father's 
office  seems  to  have  influenced  him  in  his  choice  of 
the  law  for  a  profession.  In  a  letter  written  home 
while  he  was  a  student  in  Athens,  he  says : — 

"Yesterday  I  wrote  my  Inaugural  as  President 
of  the  Athenian  Society.  My  subject  Law.  There 
is  nothing  like  fixing  beforehand  one's  course  of 
life.  Everything  great  and  little  which  will  sub 
serve  the  interests  of  the  particular  profession, 
will  almost  unknown  be  treasured  up.  I  know  a 
little  more  about  the  general  principles,  tendency, 
etc.,  etc.,  of  Law  (taken  in  its  general  sense)  than 
I  ever  supposed.  I  am  perfectly  at  home  in  it.  It's 
my  delight,  I  love  it,  and  my  every  energy  shall  be 
bent  toward  it." 

It  was  during  his  college  course  that  he  actually 
began  his  law  studies.  With  that  systematic  habit 
of  making  every  moment  tell,  using  time  when 
others  would  waste  it,  he  saw  the  possibility  of 
employing  a  portion  of  one  of  his  vacations  in  the 
active  study  of  legal  text  books.  In  that  connec 
tion  Judge  Dickman  writes: — 

"Between  the  close  of  the  Senior  year  and  the 
Commencement  day  in  September,  1846,  there  was 
an  interval  of  over  two  months  in  which  the  gradu 
ating  class  was  relieved  from  academic  duty. 


62  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

During  that  time  Mr.  Cox  would  not  seek  relaxa 
tion,  but  entered  enthusiastically  upon  the  study 
of  law;  and  before  Commencement  day  he  told  me 
he  had  read  Blackstone's  Commentaries,  and  a 
large  part  of  Cruise's  Digest.  How  thoroughly  he 
could  have  accomplished  so  much  reading  in  so 
short  a  time,  it  is  not  necessary  to  inquire.  But  it 
is  evidence  of  the  zeal  he  manifested  in  preparing 
to  enter  his  chosen  profession,  through  whose  por 
tals  he  desired  to  pass  in  achieving  that  political 
distinction  of  which  he  was  ambitious." 

In  this  connection  it  is  interesting  to  mention 
that  even  in  his  law  studies  he  gives  credit  to  Pres 
ident  Wayland,  for  he  says:— 

"When  I  studied  Blackstone,  by  the  aid  of  my 
training  in  analysis  I  found  that  I  could  repeat  al 
most  the  whole  of  it  in  my  own  language,  and 
since  then,  throughout  the  whole  of  my  life,  I  have 
found  analysis  of  the  greatest  advantage." 

On  returning  to  Ohio  after  graduation  he  con 
tinued  his  study  of  law,  at  first  with  Judge  C.  W. 
Searle  in  Zanesville,  and  then  with  Judge  Con- 
vers  of  the  firm  of  Godard  &  Convers,  in  whose 
office  Mr.  George  Hoadley,  afterwards  governor  of 
Ohio,  was  also  a  student.  Later  he  removed  to 
Cincinnati  where  he  finished  his  legal  studies  un 
der  the  Hon.  Vachel  Worthington. 

Having  been  admitted  to  the  bar  he  formed  a 
partnership  with  Mr.  George  E.  Pugh,  who  after 
wards  represented  Ohio  in  the  United  States  Sen 
ate.  For  two  years  he  practiced  law  and  made 
good  headway  in  his  profession.  One  testifies 
that  "the  thoroughness  of  his  knowledge  and  his 
readiness  as  a  speaker  gave  him  great  strength  be 
fore  juries." 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  63 

The  story  of  his  first  case  in  court  is  told  as  fol 
lows  by  Captain  John  Duble,  an  officer  in  the  fleet 
of  river  gunboats  that  assisted  in  repulsing  the 
Confederate  forces  when  they  laid  siege  to  Cincin 
nati  during  the  War  of  the  Rebellion:— 

"A  neighbor  and  I  had  a  difference,  which  in 
volved  perhaps  $25,  and  we  mutually  agreed  to  em 
ploy  counsel  and  settle  it  in  Court.  I  didn't  care 
much  for  the  amount  involved,  and  as  little  Sam 
Cox,  as  we  called  him,  was  a  sturdy  youngster, 
studying  law,  in  a  spirit  of  fun,  and  to  see  what 
was  in  him,  I  retained  him.  Little  Sam  sat  up 
late  at  nights  and  worked  like  a  Trojan  to  master 
the  points  of  the  case.  He  had  some  assistance 
from  Stanley  Matthewrs,  later  Justice  of  the  Uni 
ted  States  Supreme  Court. 

"Young  Cox  had  his  legal  guns  well  shotted  at 
the  convening  of  court.  He  was  ambitious  to  win  his 
first  case,  and  this  nerved  him  on  in  the  struggle. 
Witnesses  were  examined,  but  when  it  came  to 
making  the  plea  he  was  a  trifle  timid  and  nervous. 
But  as  he  warmed  up  he  forgot  the  crowd,  and 
when  he  reached  his  spread-eagle  peroration  he 
held  them  spell-bound.  When  he  concluded,  cheer 
after  cheer  rang  through  the  old  Justice  Hall,  such 
as  had  never  been  heard  there  before,  and  Little 
Sam  wras  the  hero  of  the  hour." 

The  peroration  of  this  maiden  speech  was  about 
as  follows: — 

"Your  Honor,  I  demand  for  my  client  only  sim 
ple  justice.  If  you  refuse  him  this  you  will  violate 
every  rule  of  jurisprudence — rules  as  old  as  juris 
prudence  itself — which  have  been  left  undisturbed 
by  the  storms  of  fate  since  the  day  when  Julius 


64  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

Caesar  planted  his  foot  upon  English  soil,  after  the 
conquest  of  Gaul;  since  the  first  Indian  explored 
the  Western  wilds  of  Ohio.  Why,  sir,  refuse  jus 
tice  to  my  client,  and  you  will  shake  the  taber 
nacle  of  his  soul  and  cause  him  to  tremble  for  the 
destinies  of  his  country.  Your  Honor,  the  case  to 
me  is  as  clear  as  the  sun  at  noonday,  when  its 
beams  penetrate,  like  shafts  of  living  light,  down 
to  the  bottom  of  the  slumbering  sea.  The  efful 
gence  of  that  heavenly  orb  can  fathom  the  pro- 
foundest  depths  of  the  human  heart  and  open  wide 
its  portals  that  we  may  read  its  secret  workings. 

"Clear  as  that  crystal  sun  the  mind  of  man  pene 
trates  the  deep  recesses  of  the  brain,  where  are 
opened  wide  to  his  prophetic  vision  thoughts 
which  enable  him  to  look  into  the  book  of  fate,  and 
as  he  turns  over  the  leaves  of  that  musty  volume — 
mildewed  by  the  breath  of  Time — leaves  which 
have  been  sealed  to  the  gaze  of  man  since  crea 
tion's  earliest  dawn,  he  half  expects  to  hear  the 
voices  of  oracles  of  the  departed  ages.  Casting  his 
mind's  eye  still  backward  he  beholds  the  trillions 
passed  away,  and  prophetic  vision  sees  the  untold 
billions  of  billions  yet  to  come — all  of  whom  had, 
and  all  will  have,  brightest  hopes  and  aspirations 
fully  equal  to  our  own,  and  all  uttering  the  uni 
versal  cry  of  c Justice!' 

"Justice,  Your  Honor,  blended  with  mercy, 
should  be  set  in  diadem  high  as  the  midnight  heav 
ens,  and  surrounded  by  a  halo  of  the  brightest 
planets,  there,  in  letters  of  living  light,  to  shine 
perpetually,  that  the  moon  and  stars,  in  their 
regular  rounds,  may  pay  obeisance  and  bow  in  de 
votion  to  those  talismanic  words,  'Justice  and 
Mercy.' 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  65 

"Sir,  the  heathen  Hottentot  and  the  American 
savage  have  those  heavenly  attributes  engrafted 
upon  every  principle  of  life  and  action.  They  be 
hold  it  in  the  sun,  moon  and  stars;  they  hear  it  in 
every  wind  that  blows.  It  will  be  the  Magna 
Charta  of  all  generations  of  men.  Why,  sir,  in 
spiration  and  poetry  spring  from  thoughts  of  jus 
tice  and  mercy.  For,  blended  with  these  is  the 
poetry  of  heaven,  when,  in  the  gorgeousness  of 
light,  the  sun  proclaims,  voiced  as  with  a  golden 
lyre,  the  powers  of  the  eternal;  or  at  night,  when 
the  moon  and  stars  give  forth,  in  silvery  accents, 
the  same  adoring  hymn.  In  these  we  find  the 
poetry  of  the  sea,  when  it  speaks  in  rippled  meas 
ure  or  thunders  in  the  voice  of  its  own  rebounding 
billows;  or  in  the  storm,  or  in  the  green  fields,  in 
waving  woods  and  delightful  gardens. 

"Your  Honor,  justice  is  what  I  demand  from 
you,  that  justice  with  which  Armand  de  Kichelieu 
ruled  France  for  15  years,  when  he  held  her  to  his 
bosom  in  the  dreadful  strifes  which  desolated  her 
— held  her  there,  pillowed  upon  justice.  Why, 
sir,  thoughts  fly  through  my  brain  in  numbers  like 
as  blades  of  grass  upon  our  boundless  Western 
prairies,  thickly  as  the  hosts  of  Lucifer  when  he 
marshaled  his  forces  upon  the  seashore  to  attack 
the  angels — in  numbers  as  many  as  the  autumnal 
leaves  that  strew  the  rippled  brooks  on  my  own 
classic  Muskingum." 

It  is  needless  to  add  that  Cox  won  the  case,  and 
as  Captain  Duble  puts  it  "with  hands  down."  He 
adds:  "The  opposing  counsel  simply  stated  to  the 
Court  that  Cox  had  fairly  covered  the  ground,  and 
that  he  had  nothing  to  say,  except  that  he  knew 


66  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

His  Honor  would  decide  the  case  by  the  strict  rule 
of  justice.  Immediately  the  Magistrate  decided  in 
our  favor,  throwing  costs  upon  the  defendant." 
In  regard  to  the  fee  Captain  Duble  says  :— 
"I  asked  Cox  what  his  fee  was.  With  blushing 
modesty  and  timidity  he  asked:  'Is  $5  too  much?' 
I  felt  like  pounding  the  young  rascal,  and  con 
cluded  that  he  would  never  make  a  lawyer  if  his 
charges  were  like  that.  'Young  man,'  said  I,  'you 
do  not  know  the  first  principles  of  your  profession. 
You  don't  know  how  to  charge.  Here,  take  the 
whole  amount  awarded  by  the  Court.'  That  first 
case  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  subsequent 
career  of  the  great  Sunset  Cox." 


CHAPTER  V. 

HIS   MARRIAGE  AND   TRIP  TO   EUROPE. 

On  one  of  his  trips  from  Zanesville  to  Brown  he 
was  fortunate  in  securing  the  only  vacant  seat  in 
a  stage  coach  that  had  been  chartered  for  New 
York  by  a  party,  among  whom  was  Miss  Julia  A. 
Buckingham,  who  with  her  brother  was  about  to 
spend  the  summer  in  New  Hampshire.  There  is 
no  record  of  what  happened  on  that  journey,  but 
it  is  stated  that  whenever  the  young  lady  alighted 
from  the  stage  to  walk  up  the  hills,  the  custom  of 
the  day,  the  student  remained  inside  the  stage; 
and  when  she  remained  he  alighted. 

When  questioned  about  it  the  young  lady,  with 
an  amused  smile,  remarked,  "Oh!  I  only  noticed 
that  when  I  alighted  from  the  stage  for  a  short 
and  restful  promenade,  the  youth  always  re 
mained  inside  the  stage,  and  vice  versa." 

On  his  return  to  Zanesville,  however,  the  ac 
quaintance  was  renewed,  and  when  he  had  com 
pleted  his  legal  studies  he  sought  her  hand  in  mar 
riage.  The  consent  of  the  young  lady  was  soon 
obtained,  and  the  marriage  ceremony  took  place 
in  Zanesville,  on  October  11,  1849. 

The  Honorable  Proctor  Knott  in  his  eulogy  of 
Mr.  Cox  beautifully  and  truthfully  describes  the 
relations  of  this  most  devoted  husband  and  wife. 
Said  Mr.  Knott:— 


68  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

"Fortunate  as  he  was  in  many  respects,  infinite 
ly  beyond  the  average  of  his  race,  Mr.  Cox  found 
the  crowning  blessing  of  his  beautiful  life  in  the 
affectionate  devotion  and  genial  companionship 
of  his  gifted  and  loving  wife.  Pure  in  spirit  as 
thrice  sifted  snow,  sweet  in  disposition  as  the 
breath  of  new  blown  roses,  gentle  in  manner  as 
the  evening  zephyr  dallying  with  the  violet's  eye, 
faithful  to  every  obligation,  and  cheerful  in  the 
discharge  of  every  duty  that  affection,  humanity, 
or  religion  impose,  she  was,  as  she  is  to-night,  the 
perfection  of  the  highest,  holiest  type  of  noble 
womanhood.  To  her  devoted  husband  she  was  in 
deed  the  pearl  beyond  all  price.  His  constant 
companion,  his  truest  friend,  his  trusted  adviser 
in  all  things,  she  was  to  him  a  crown  of  glory 
and  a  song  of  rejoicing  throughout  all  the  days  of 
their  married  life.  She  shared  all  his  high  am 
bitions  and  gloried  in  his  successes.  Her  gentle 
hand  supported  him  in  the  dark  hours  of  sorrow, 
and  her  loving  smile  gave  a  lovelier  glow  to  the 
bright  rays  of  returning  joy.  Hand  in  hand  they 
trod  life's  journey  together,  strewing  its  pathway 
with  the  rich  jewels  of  gentleness  and  charity,  un 
til  in  the  full  flush  of  his  fame,  with  his  blushing 
honors  thick  upon  him  he  was  beckoned  to  a 
brighter  clime,  to  the  real  'Wonderland,'  whither 
he  is  wooing  her  in  the  soft,  sweet  music  of  an  an 
gel's  whisper." 

A  few  months  after  their  marriage  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Cox  sailed  for  Europe — a  rare  trip  in  those  days. 
It  was  the  year  of  the  World's  Exposition  in  Lon 
don — the  first  of  its  kind  in  the  world's  history. 
They  reached  Liverpool  on  the  night  of  May  17, 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  69 

1851.  They  returned  in  the  September  following. 
Meanwhile  they  had  made  a  tour  through  France, 
Italy,  Germany,  Belgium,  Scotland,  England  and 
Ireland,  with  "delightful  sojournings  at  Rome, 
Naples,  Malta,  Venice,  Athens,  Smyrna,  Constanti 
nople,  Geneva  and  amid  the  Alps,  and  observa 
tions  along  the  Mediterranean,  amidst  the  Isles  of 
Greece."  Under  the  title  "A  Buckeye  Abroad," 
Mr.  Cox,  on  his  return,  published  a  delightful  vol 
ume  of  reminiscence  of  his  journey — a  volume  that 
met  with  such  favor  that  it  went  into  the  eighth 
edition. 

In  an  introduction  to  the  seventh  edition  he 
wrote: — 

"Since  it  was  issued,  in  1852,  there  have  been 
six  editions  published;  and  although  frequent  ap 
plications  have  been  made  for  it,  especially  in  the 
West,  it  has  been  impossible  for  me  to  supply  the 
demand." 

Some  one  wrote:  "His  Buckeye  Abroad  is  an  ex 
cellent  book  for  dyspeptics." 


CHAPTER  VI. 


AS   AN  EDITOR. 

In  his  preface  to  the  first  edition  of  "A  Buckeye 
Abroad,"  Mr.  Cox  says :  "The  pleasure  of  traveling 
was  enhanced  by  companionship.  We  numbered 
four  in  our  company,  two  ladies  and  a  gentleman, 
Mr.  Philo  Buckingham,  and  myself — just  the  num 
ber  for  convenience  and  unity  of  movement,  as 
well  as  for  pleasure.  The  time,  too,  was  propitious. 
The  year  1851  may  be  truly  called  annus  mirabilis, 
at  least  so  far  as  travelers  were  concerned.  The 
Great  Exhibition — that  novel  phase  of  our  civil 
ization — was  enough  to  entitle  the  year  to  the 
honor,  as  a  special  wonder."  The  favor  with 
which  this  fascinating  story  of  travel  was  received 
by  the  public,  led  the  friends  of  its  gifted  author 
to  urge  him  to  abandon  the  law  for  the  more  con 
genial  field  of  journalism.  Acting  on  their  ad 
vice  Mr.  Cox  purchased,  in  1853,  a  controlling  in 
terest  in  the  Columbus  "Statesman,"  the  organ,  at 
the  State  capital,  of  the  Democracy,  assuming  in 
person  its  editorial  conduct.  As  an  editorial 
writer  he  proved,  as  was  to  have  been  expected, 
vigorous,  original  and  brilliant.  He  was  no  novice 
with  his  pen.  During  his  course  at  Brown  Uni 
versity  he  had  contributed  both  prose  and  verse  to 
newspapers  and  periodicals.  His  first  effort  at 
magazine  writing  was  for  the  old  "Knickerbocker" 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  71 

while  he  was  yet  at  college.  It  wa«  an  article  de 
scriptive  of  the  river  on  whose  banks  he  was  born 
— the  Muskingum — with  an  account  of  the  Mo 
ravian  massacre  at  Gnadenhutten  which  took 
place  at  the  time  of  the  War  of  the  Revolution. 
While  at  Brown,  too,  he  had  carried  off  prizes  in 
classics,  in  history,  in  poetic  criticism,  and  in  po 
litical  economy;  his  theme  on  this  last  subject  be 
ing  "The  Repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws."  In  this  essay 
he  took  ground,  which  he  ever  afterward  main 
tained,  in  support  of  the  liberalities  of  commerce 
against  the  "American  system"  of  bounties  for  a 
few  from  the  many. 

As  editor  of  the  "Statesman,"  Mr.  Cox,  then  un 
der  thirty  years  of  age,  became  at  once  an  ac 
knowledged  power  in  the  politics  of  his  State.  In 
the  treatment  of  the  issues  of  the  day  he  was 
strong  and  vigorous  and,  withal,  refreshingly 
original. 

It  was  while  he  was  in  the  editorial  chair  at  Co 
lumbus  that  the  sobriquet  "Sunset"  was  conferred 
upon  him,  a  sobriquet  fitting  his  initials  and  cling 
ing  to  him  thereafter  all  his  days.  It  came  as  a 
sequel  to  an  exceedingly  picturesque  description 
from  the  editor's  pen,  of  a  glorious  sunset.  This 
description,  under  the  caption  "A  Great  Old  Sun 
set,"  appeared  in  the  Statesman  May  19, 1853,  and 
read  as  follows: 

"What  a  stonnful  sunset  was  that 
of  last  night!  How  glorious  the 
storm  and  how  splendid  the  setting 
of  the  sun!  We  do  not  remember 
ever  to  have  seen  the  like  on  our 
round  globe.  The  scene  opened  in 


72  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

the  west,  with  a  whole  horizon  full  of 
golden   impenetrating   lustre,  which 
colored  the  foliage  and  brightened 
every  object  in  its  own  rich  dyes. 
The  colors  grew  deeper  and  richer, 
until  the  golden  luster  was  trans 
formed  into  a  storm-cloud,  full   of 
finest   lightning,     which   leaped    in 
dazzling  zigzags  all  around  and  over 
the  city.    The  wind  arose  with  fury, 
the  slender  shrubs  and  quaint  trees 
made  obeisance  to  its  majesty.  Some 
even  snapped  before  its  force.     The 
strawberry    beds    and   grass    plots 
'turned  up  their  whites'  to  seeZephy- 
rus  march  by.    As  the  rain  came, 
and  the  pools  formed,  and  the  gut 
ters  hurried  away,  thunder  roared 
grandly,  and  the  fire-bells  caught  the 
excitement   and   rung   with   hearty 
chorus.    The  south  and  east  received 
the  copious  showers,  and  the  west  all 
at  once  brightened  up  in  a  long,  pol 
ished  belt  of  azure,  worthy  of  a  Sici 
lian  sky.  Presently  a  cloud  appeared 
in  the  azure  belt,  in  the  form  of  a 
castellated    city.    It    became    more 
vivid,    revealing    strange   forms   of 
peerless   fanes   and   alabaster  tem 
ples,  and  glories  rare  and  grand  in 
this   mundane   sphere.     It   reminds 
us  of  Wordsworth's  splendid  verse  in 
his  Excursion: — 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  73 

The  appearance  instantaneously  disclosed 
"Was  of  a  mighty  city,  boldly  say 
A  wilderness  of  buildings,  sinking  far 
And  self- withdrawn  into  a  wondrous  depth. 
Far  sinking  into  splendor  without  end, 

"But  the  city  vanished  only  to 
give  place  to  another  isle,  where  the 
most  beautiful  forms  of  foliage 
appeared,  imaging  a  paradise  in 
•the  distant  and  purified  air.  The 
sun,  wearied  of  the  elemental  com 
motion,  sank  behind  the  green  plains 
of  the  west.  The  'great  eye  in  heav 
en/  however,  went  not  down  with 
out  a  dark  brow  hanging  over  its  de 
parting  light.  The  rich  flush  of  the 
unearthly  light  had  passed  and  the 
rain  had  ceased;  when  the  solemn 
church  bells  pealed;  the  laughter  of 
children,  out  in  the  air  and  joyous 
after  the  storm,  is  heard  with  the 
carol  of  birds;  while  the  forked  and 
purple  weapon  of  the  skies  still 
darted  illuminations  around  the 
Starling  College,  trying  to  rival  its 
angles  and  leap  into  its  dark  win 
dows.  Candles  are  lighted.  The 
piano  strikes  up.  We  feel  that  it  is 
good  to  have  a  home — good  to  be  on 
the  earth  where  such  revelations 
of  beauty  and  power  may  be  made. 
And  as  we  cannot  refrain  from  re 
minding  our  readers  of  everything 
wonderful  in  our  city,  we  have  begun 
and  ended  our  feeble  etching  of  a 


74  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

sunset  which  comes  so  rarely,  that 
its  glory  should  be  committed  to  im 
mortal  type." 

This  vivid  description  has  been  criticised  as  be 
ing  too  florid,  but  critics  are  not  always  just.  Sir 
John  McDonald,  the  eminent  Canadian  statesman, 
when  describing  a  sunset  of  phenomenal  beauty, 
in  a  letter  to  the  Toronto  Globe,  quotes  the  entire 
article  by  Mr.  Cox,  and  refers  to  it  as  follows : — 

"This  has  been  thought  to  be  highly  imagina 
tive.  Doubtless  it  is.  None  but  a  man  of  fertile 
and  poetic  imagination  could  write  it.  It  has  been 
thought  to  be  greatly  exaggerated,  if  not  unreal. 
I  did  not  see  it,  and  of  it  I  cannot  speak,  but,  hav 
ing  read  the  description  over  most  carefully  sev 
eral  times,  it  contains  nothing  which  I  cannot  con 
ceive  as  being  perfectly  possible;  for  had  the  cas 
tellated  city,  of  which  he  speaks,  appeared  in  the 
azure  belt,  and  had  this  in  vanishing  given  place 
to  'another  isle,  where  the  most  beautiful  forms  of 
foliage  appeared,  imaging  a  paradise  in  the  distant 
and  purified  air,7  even  these  forms  wondrous  as 
they  must  have  appeared  to  one  of  his  poetic  im 
agination,  would  not  have  equalled  the  glory  and 
the  grandeur  of  the  sight  which  we  were  privi 
leged  to  behold.  For  to  us  it  appeared  that  the 
very  portals  of  heaven  were  opened,  which  led  not 
to  the  castellated  city  which  presented  itself  to  the 
imagination  of  Congressman  Cox,  but  to  that 
'great  city,  the  Holy  Jerusalem,  descending  out  of 
heaven  from  God,  and  her  light  was  like  unto  a 
stone  most  precious,  even  like  a  jasper  stone,  clear 
as  crystal.'  I  was  better  able  to  understand  what 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  75 

others  had  written  on  the  same  subject  by  reason 
of  what  I  had  seen.  When  Humbolt  was  pursuing 
his  investigations  in  Camana  he  thus  wrote:  'There 
the  sun  does  not  only  shed  light  upon  a  landscape/ 
as  with  us,  'but  it  gives  a  coloring  to  the  different 
objects;  it  enfolds  them,  without  destroying  their 
transparency,  with  a  light  which  makes  their  col 
oring  more  harmonious,  and  spreads  a  repose  over 
nature.' 

"But  chiefly  am  I  glad  that  it  is  in  my  power,  by 
my  own  humble  testimony,  to  rescue  the  descrip 
tion  of  Congressman  Cox  from  the  charge  of  exag 
geration  and  unnaturalness  put  forth  by  some,  and 
to  express  my  own  thanks  that  the  description  of 
'A  Great  Old  Sunset'  was  ever  penned  by  one  so 
gifted — a  description  which  will  be  perfectly  in 
telligible  to  all  who  may  be  permitted  to  look  upon 
the  glory  of  the  setting  sun  under  conditions  simi 
lar  to  those  witnessed  by  us  at  Labouchere  Bay." 


CHAPTER  VII. 

ENTERS  THE  ARENA  OF  POLITICS. 

With  the  mantle  of  editor  of  the  leading  Demo 
cratic  organ  of  the  State,  came  the  mantle  also  of 
party  leadership.  The  chairman  of  the  Ohio  Dem 
ocratic  State  Committee,  in  1853,  was  Washington 
McLean,  the  proprietor  of  the  Cincinnati  Enquirer, 
one  of  Mr.  Cox's  earliest  and  staunchest  friends. 
Chairman  McLean,  anxious  to  be  relieved  of  the 
responsibilities  incident  to  the  conduct  of  the  cam 
paign,  resigned  the  chairmanship  upon  the  con 
dition  that  Mr.  Cox  accept  the  place  and  direct  the 
canvass.  William  Medill  was  the  Democratic 
candidate  for  Governor.  The  opposing  candidates 
were  Barrere,  Whig,  and  Lewis,  Free  Soiler.  Mr. 
Cox  threw  himself  into  the  campaign  with  all  his 
characteristic  vigor  and  energy.  Never,  it  is  said, 
were  his  tireless  industry  and  his  marvelous  ver 
satility  better  displayed.  Besides  doing  the  execu 
tive  work  of  the  committee  of  which  he  was  the 
head,  he  took  the  stump,  electrifying  the  masses 
by  his  eloquent  reasoning,  or  convulsing  them 
with  his  keen  wit,  and,  withal,  not  neglecting  to 
enforce  the  Democratic  doctrine  through  the  edi 
torial  page  of  his  newspaper.  His  resources 
seemed  to  be  inexhaustible.  Overwhelming  vic 
tory  crowned  his  efforts — Medill  being  elected 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  77 

Governor  by  a  majority  over  all  of  11,497,  and  a 
plurality  over  the  Whig  candidate  of  61,843. 

By  the  prestige  thus  gained  the  young  editor 
and  stump  orator  was,  in  spite  of  himself,  fairly 
launched  upon  the  tempestuous  sea  of  politics.  In 
the  words  of  another,  young,  quick-witted,  ready, 
energetic,  ardent,  earnest,  talented,  graceful,  and 
accomplished,  no  man  was  more  fitted  to  win  the 
plaudits  of  the  people.  He  was  the  rising  young 
statesman  of  the  Buckeye  State.  His  fame  spread 
to  Washington,  and  thither  he  was  summoned  by 
President  Pierce.  It  was  Mr.  Cox's  first  visit  to 
the  National  capital.  President  Pierce  took  a 
great  liking  to  the  brilliant  Buckeye,  and,  in  1855, 
tendered  him  the  post  of  Secretary  of  Legation  at 
the  Court  of  St.  James.  This  honor  was  declined, 
Mr.  Cox  preferring,  for  reasons  of  his  own,  the  less 
exalted  post  of  Secretary  to  the  Peruvian  legation. 
The  President  freely  acquiesced,  and  Mr.  Cox 
sailed  for  Peru.  Overtaken,  however,  by  alarm 
ing  illness  at  Aspinwall,  enroute  to  his  post,  it  was 
not  deemed  prudent  for  him  to  proceed  further. 
Accordingly,  as  soon  as  able,  he  returned  to  the 
United  States  and  resigned  his  commission. 
Thirty  years — three  decades  big  with  the  fate  of 
the  nation — were  destined  to  pass  before  his  re 
entry  into  his  country's  diplomatic  service,  as 
Minister  to  Turkey. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

ELECTED   TO   CONGRESS. 

The  turning  point  in  Mr.  Cox's  life  had  come. 
A  new  career  was  opening  before  him,  one  in 
which  he  was  to  achieve  a  memorable  and  a 
unique  success — one  which  was  to  link  his  name 
with  the  most  eventful  chapters  of  American  his 
tory,  and  emblazon  his  fame  on  its  brightest  pages. 
Samuel  Sullivan  Cox  was  about  to  enter  the  na 
tional  House  of  Representatives.  It  was  the  year 
1856.  The  Republican  party,  as  if  having  sprung, 
like  Minerva,  full-armed  from  the  brain  of  Jove, 
although  less  than  a  year  old,  had  already  de 
veloped  a  strength  which  struck  consternation 
into  the  heart  of  the  ancient  democracy.  John  C. 
Fremont,  the  "Pathfinder,"  was  the  Republican 
standard  bearer,  and  to  his  standard  the  young 
men  of  the  country  in  particular  were  flocking  in 
serried  hosts.  The  venerable  James  Buchanan, 
an  old  public  functionary  whose  services  to  his 
country  dated  back  for  decades,  was  the  democra 
cy's  candidate  for  President.  The  spirit  of  sec 
tionalism  was  deeply  stirred.  The  Democratic 
leaders  plainly  saw  that  if  they  were  to  retain  the 
citadel  of  power,  which  they  had  captured  four 
years  before,  no  stone  was  to  be  left  unturned. 
Everywhere  they  were  putting  the  best  foot  for 
ward.  In  the  capital  district  of  Ohio  they  in- 


SAMUEL  SJJLLIVAN  COX  79 

stinctively  turned  to  the  young  and  briliant  lead 
er,  the  eloquent  orator  and  able  editor,  Samuel 
Sullivan  Cox.  Him  they  asked  to  be  their  candi 
date  for  Congress;  and  he  accepted.  Samuel  Gal 
loway  was  his  Republican  opponent,  while  Mr. 
Stanberry  was  the  candidate  of  wrhat  was  left  of 
the  old  "American"  party,  now  mainly  merged 
into  the  new  Republican  body.  The  campaign 
was  both  exciting  and  bitter.  Mr.  Cox  was 
elected  by  a  plurality  over  Galloway  of  355  votes. 
He  was  now  thirty-two  years  old,  but  he  had  an 
equipment  for  the  duties  before  him  in  education, 
in  experience  of  public  affairs,  and  in  general 
adaptation,  possessed  by  fewr  young  men  of  his 
era. 

Among  Mr.  Cox's  papers  is  an  autograph  letter 
from  Franklin  Pierce,  written  to  the  youthful  Con 
gressman  from  his  New  Hampshire  home  a  few 
months  after  his  retirement  from  the  Presidency. 
Incidentallly  the  letter  reveals  the  "high  hope" 
entertained  of  the  national  career  upon  which  he 
was  about  to  enter,  by  the  veterans  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party.  Writes  ex-President  Pierce: — 
"Rockingham  House,  Portland,  N.  H., 

"September  15,  1857. 

"My  Dear  Sir: — Accept  my  thanks  for  your  kind 
note  of  the  3d  inst.,  and  also  for  your  admirable 
address  at  Providence.  I  wras  deeply  touched  by 
your  noble  tribute  to  Governor  Marcy.  It  was 
well  earned  by  a  long,  useful,  eventful  life. 

"I  shall  probably  go  to  Cuba  for  the  winter  with 
the  anticipation  of  improvement  to  Mrs.  Pierce's 
health — but  you  must  let  me  hear  from  you  fre 
quently  after  you  enter  upon  your  Congressional 
career,  to  which  I  shall  look  with  interest  and 
high  hope.  Very  truly  your  friend, 

"Franklin  Pierce." 

"Hon.  Samuel  S.  Cox.  Columbus,  Ohio." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

EIGHT   YEARS  AN   OHIO   REPRESENTATIVE. 

March  4,  1857,  the  day  that  witnessed  the  inau 
guration  of  James  Buchanan  as  President  of  the 
United  States,  the  last  of  the  ante-bellum  line  of 
chief  magistrates,  also  ushered  into  national  public 
life  Samuel  Sullivan  Cox.  It  was  midway  of  his 
career.  Then  thirty-two  years  old  he  had  before 
him  other  thirty -two  years  which  were  to  be  spent 
mainly  before  the  footlights  of  that  great  national 
theatre,  the  House  of  Representatives.  It  wa« 
the  Thirty-fifth  Congress.  The  new  wings  of  the 
Capitol  were  nearing  their  completion,  and  to  the 
Thirty-fifth  Congress  was  to  fall  the  honor  of  first 
occupying  the  new  quarters. 

With  a  Democratic  President  the  country  had 
returned  a  Democratic  House  of  Representatives. 
The  choice  of  Speaker  fell  upon  James  L.  Orr,  of 
South  Carolina.  In  the  distribution  of  committee 
chairmanships  Mr.  Cox,  although  a  new  member 
was  not  forgotten.  He  was  placed  at  the  head  of 
Revolutionary  Claims.  Events  contributed  to 
bring  the  representative  of  the  Capital  district  of 
Ohio  into  early  and  unexpected  prominence,  and, 
moreover,  to  signal  to  the  world  his  independence 
of  character  and  his  moral  courage.  Environment 
added  to  the  dramatic  interest  of  the  occasion. 

The  first  session  of  the  new  Congress  opened  De 
cember  7,  1857,  in  the  old  hall  of  Representatives. 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  81 

On  the  16th  of  that  month  the  House  bade  adieu 
to  the  old  hall,  with  all  its  historic  associations, 
and  took  possession  of  its  new  chamber  in  the 
south  wing  of  the  Capitol,  the  same  it  occupies  to 
day.  To  "Sunset"  Cox,  as  it  chanced,  fell  the 
honor  of  making  the  maiden  speech  in  the  new 
chamber.  And  to  the  consternation  of  the  vet 
eran  leaders  of  his  party  who  listened,  that  speech 
was  a  gauntlet  thrown  to  the  new  administration, 
which  he  himself  had  zealously  helped  to  place  in 
power!  The  issue  on  which  this  young  member 
had  the  temerity  to  lock  horns  with  the  party's 
President,  at  the  very  threshold  of  his  term,  was 
the  Lecompton  constitution.  To  the  admission  of 
Kansas  into  the  union  under  that  pro-slavery  con 
stitution  President  Buchanan  was  committed. 
The  opposition  thereto  was  led  by  the  "little 
giant"  of  the  senate,  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  with 
"popular  sovereignty"  for  his  shibboleth.  In  the 
memorable  conflict  then  just  beginning,  a  conflict 
that  resulted  in  the  rupture  of  the  party  and  its 
defeat  at  the  polls  three  years  later,  Samuel  S 
Cox  was  an  able  lieutenant  of  Judge  Douglas. 
His  was  the  first  speech  made  in  the  House  of  Kep- 
resentatives  against  the  Lecompton  Constitution. 
It  was  the  keynote.  By  it  the  line  was  closely 
drawn,  on  the  one  or  the  other  side  of  which  the 
Democrats  the  country  over  ere  long  arrayed 
themselves  in  frowning  attitude. 

Of  that  speech  and  the  scene  attending  its  de 
livery,  the  author  in  his  "Three  Decades  of  Fed 
eral  Legislation,"  says: 

"The  16th  of  December,  1857,  is  memorable  in 
the  annals  of  the  United  States.  Looking  back  to 


82  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

that  day,  the  writer  can  see  the  members  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  take    up    the    line    of 
march  out   of   the   old  shadowy  and  murmurous 
Chamber  into  the  new  Hall,  with  its  ornate  and 
gilded  interior.     The  scene  is  intense  in   a  rare 
dramatic  quality.     Around  sit  the  members  upon 
richly  carved  oaken  chairs.    Already  arrayed  upon 
either  side  are  the  sections  in  mutual  animosity. 
The  Republicans  take  the  left  of  the  Speaker,  the 
Democrats  the  right.    James  L.  Orr,  of  South  Caro 
lina,    a   full,    roseate-faced    gentleman,    of   large 
build  and  ringing  metallic  voice,  is  in  the  chair. 
James  C.  Allen,  of  Illinois,  sits  below  him  in  the 
Clerk's  chair.     The  Eev.  Mr.  Carothers  offers  an 
appropriate  and  inspiring  prayer.     A  solemn  hush 
succeeds  the  invocation.     After  some  legislative 
routine  the  members  retire  to  the  open  space  in  the 
rear  to  await  the  drawing  of  seats.     A  page  with 
bandaged  eyes  makes  the  award,  and  one  by  one 
the  members  are  seated.    Then  by  the  courtesy  of 
the   chairman   of  the   Printing   Committee   (Mr. 
Smith,  of  Tennessee),  a  young  member  from  Ohio 
is  allowed  to  take  the  floor.     He  addresses  the 
Speaker  with  timidity  and  modesty  amid  many  in 
terruptions  by  Humphrey  Marshall,  Thomas  S. 
Bocock,  Judge  Hughes,   George  W.  Jones,   and 
General   Quitman,  each   of  whom   bristles   with 
points  of  order  against  the  points  of  the  speaker. 
But  that  young  member  is   soon   observed   by  a 
quiet  House.     Many  listen    to    him,    perhaps    to 
judge  of  the  acoustic  qualities  of  the  Hall,  some 
because  of  the  nature  of  the  debate.     And  then 
after  a  few  minutes  all  become  excited.     Again 
and  again  the  shrill  tones  of  Mr.  Speaker  Orr  are 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  83 

heard  above  the  uproar.  He  exclaims:  'This  is  a 
motion  to  print  extra  copies  of  the  President's 
message.  Debate  on  the  subject  is  therefore  in 
order,  upon  which  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  has 
the  floor.'  That  gentleman  is  now  the  writer.  His 
theme  was  the  Lecompton  constitution.  As  the 
questions  discussed  involved  the  great  issues  lead 
ing  to  war  or  peace  his  interest  in  the  mis-en- 
scene  became  less.  But  his  maiden  speech — the 
maiden  speech  in  the  new  chamber — began  under 
circumstances  anything  but  composing." 

Judge  Holman,  of  Indiana,  said  of  this  speech, 
on  the  floor  of  Congress:  "It  was  one  of  the  ablest 
and,  under  all  the  circumstances,  the  most  cour 
ageous  speech  ever  delivered  in  Congress  .  In 
words  of  burning  eloquence  he  denounced  the 
proposed  Constitution  as  not  expressing  the  will  of 
the  people  of  Kansas,  and  therefore  as  violative  of 
their  right  to  form  and  control  their  local  govern 
ment.  That  speech,  placing  him  at  the  very  outset 
of  his  Congressional  career  in  antagonism  to  the 
administration  as  well  as  many  of  his  political 
friends,  opened  up  one  of  the  greatest  debates  in 
the  records  of  Congress."  It  resulted  in  the  Le 
compton  constitution  being  referred  to  the  people 
of  Kansas,  who  promptly  rejected  it.  At  a  later 
day  Mr.  Cox  had  the  satisfaction  of  voting  for  the 
admission  of  Kansas  into  the  family  of  States  un 
der  a  Free-state  Constitution  adopted  by  the  peo 
ple.  This  was  one  of  the  most  signal  triumphs  of 
Mr.  Cox's  long  public  life.  The  President  took  his 
small  revenge  on  Mr.  Cox,  by  removing  from  the 
Postmastership  of  Columbus  the  friend  wrhose  ap 
pointment  Mr.  Cox  had  secured.  He  had,  however, 


84  SAMUEL  ^ULLIVAN  COX 

in  co-operation  with  Judge  Douglas,  saved  the 
Democratic  party  from  the  ineffable  disgrace  of 
foisting  upon  the  people  of  Kansas,  in  spite  of 
their  protests,  a  constitution  upholding  the  insti 
tution  of  slavery  in  that  territory.  In  his  Three 
Decades  Mr.  Cox,  referring  to  the  far  reaching 
consequences  of  this  conflict,  says:  "Had  the  Demo 
cratic  party  which  came  into  power  with  Mr. 
Buchanan  and  the  Thirty-fifth  Congress  united  in 
wisdom  to  thrust  aside  the  Lecompton  constitu 
tion,  there  would  have  been  no  distraction  in  its 
ranks  as  early  as  1860.  But  it  is  not  so  sure  that 
the  slavery  question  would  not  have  come  in  some 
form  to  have  kept  up  the  irrepressible  conflict. 
Had  they  thus  united,  perhaps  the  Charleston  con 
vention  of  1860  would  have  agreed." 

He  was  re-elected,  to  the  Thirty-sixth  Congress, 
by  a  majority  of  647  over  Mr.  Case,  Republican.  It 
was  an  emphatic  endorsement  of  his  position  on 
theKansas  question,  an  endorsement  given  after 
"a  campaign,"  to  use  Mr.  Cox's  words, 
"unexampled  for  its  unprovoked  fierceness, 
its  base  and  baseless  charges  of  personal  corrup 
tion,  its  conceit,  its  ignorance,  its  impudence,  its 
poltroonery,  its  billingsgate,  its  brutality,  its 
monied  corruption,  its  fanatical  folly,  its  unflag 
ging  slang,  its  drunken  saturnalia,  and  its  unblush 
ing  libels  and  pious  hypocrisy.  In  spite  of  all 
this,"  he  added,  "the  people  doubled  my  majority 
of  1856."  The  prestige  gained  by  Mr.  Cox  in  his 
first  Congress,  his  reputation  for  fearlessness  and 
independence,  a*  well  as  ability  and  eloquence, 
easily  made  him  a  leader  in  his  second  term.  He 
was  still,  however,  at  war  with  the  administra 
tion,  co-operating  with  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  the 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  85 

great  leader  of  the  Northern  Democracy  in  the 
Senate.  The  Democrats  saw  the  first  fruits  of 
their  dissensions  in  the  loss  of  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives.  After  a  protracted  struggle  for  the 
Speakership,  in  which  John  Sherman  of  Ohio  was 
side-tracked  because  he  had  unwittingly  endorsed 
Hilton  Rowan  Helper's  book,  "The  Impending 
Crisis,"  the  mantle  fell  upon  William  Pennington, 
a  Conservative  Republican  from  New  Jersey. 
During  this  Congress,  which  came  into  being 
March  4,  1859,  and  expired  March  4,  1861, 
the  lines  of  sectionalism  grew  more  and 
more  distinct.  The  rumblings  of  the  awakened 
volcano  came  louder  and  louder,  and  it  was  evi 
dent,  at  the  last  of  this  Congress,  that  the  eruption 
was  at  hand.  In  the  fierce  passions  of  the  hour 
personal  conflict  was  often  narrowly  avoided,  and 
once  at  least  there  was  actual  personal  collision 
on  the  floor  of  the  House.  The  parties  thereto  were 
Keith  of  South  Carolina  and  Grow  of  Penn 
sylvania.  Mr.  Cox,  who  w^as  a  witness  of  the  en 
counter,  thus  describes  it: — 

"It  is  after  the  hour  of  midnight.  The  passions 
of  the  time  are  incarnate  in  that  Congress  and  at 
that  hour.  See  the  fierce  clutch  and  glaring  eye, 
and  the  struggle  between  these  heady  champions! 
Now,  after  nearly  three  decades  I  see,  trooping 
down  the  aisles  of  memory,  as  then  there  came 
trooping  down  the  aisles  of  the  House,  the  belliger 
ents,  with  Washburn,  of  Illinois,  and  Potter,  of 
Wisconsin,  leading  one  extreme,  and  Barksdale 
and  Lamar,  of  Mississippi,  the  other.  Then  came 
the  melee,  the  struggle;  the  pale  face  of  the 
Speaker  calling  for  order;  the  Sergeant-at-Arms 


86  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

rushing  into  the  area  before  the  Speaker's  desk 
with  the  mace  as  his  symbol  of  authority.  Its  sil 
ver  eagle  moves  up  and  down  on  the  wave  of  pas 
sion  and  conflict.  Then  there  is  a  dead  hush  of  the 
hot  heart  and  the  glare  of  defiance  across  the  Hall. 
As  this  scene  is  revivified,  looking  at  it  through  the 
red  storm  of  the  war,  there  is  epitomized  all  that 
has  made  that  war  bloody  and  desperate." 

Of  this  Congress,  which  met  for  its  first  ses 
sion  December  5, 1859,  Mr.  Cox  says:  "Considered 
by  results  it  was,  perhaps,  the  most  important 
congregation  of  men  that  ever  assembled  upon 
our  continent.  It  held  the  destinies  of  our  institu 
tions  and  races  in  the  hollow  of  its  hand."  It  was 
during  the  life  of  this  Congress,  in  1860,  that  the 
Charleston  convention,  in  the  spring  of  that  year, 
witnessed  the  formal  disruption  of  the  Democratic 
party,  followed  by  the  presentation  of  two  candi 
dates  for  the  Presidency,  and  the  consequent  tri 
umph  of  Republicanism  in  the  election  of  Abra 
ham  Lincoln.  "On  a  gloomy  day  in  March,  1861," 
testifies  Mr.  Cox,  "the  Thirty-sixth  Congress  ad 
journs  sine  die.  There  are  many  sad  and  last  fare 
wells — for  the  pall  of  impending  wrath  hangs 
over  all  the  land.  Black  clouds  of  war  loom  up  all 
around,  surcharged  with  the  elements  of  death  and 
devastation." 

Mr.  Cox  had  again  been  re-elected  to  Congress. 
His  opponent  in  1860  was  his  opponent  of  1856, 
Samuel  Galloway.  Despite  the  flood-tide  of 
Northern  sentiment  for  Lincoln's  election  to  the 
Presidency,  and  despite  Democratic  divisions, 
Mr.  Cox  defeated  Galloway  by  a  majority  of  883. 
It  was  more  than  a  political  triumph:  it  was  a  per 
sonal  tribute  of  a  pronounced  type. 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  87 

The  Thirty-seventh  was  the  first  war  Congress. 
It  was  ushered  in  with  the  inauguration  of  Lin 
coln.  Within  fifty  days  the  war  clouds  which  had 
been  so  long  gathering,  burst;  Sumpter  fell;  and 
the  President  had  called  the  new  Congress  in  ex 
traordinary  session  to  provide  ways  and  means  for 
saving  the  Union  from  threatened  destruction. 
The  extra  session  opened  on  July  4,  1861,  a  date 
whose  associations  were  doubtless  intended  to  add 
any  needed  stimulus  to  the  patriotic  uprising 
which  followed  the  attack  on  Fort  SjUmpter.  The 
great  Southern  leaders  of  previous  Congresses 
were  conspicuous  by  their  absence.  They  had,  as 
a  rule,  followed  their  States  into  the  vortex  of 
secession.  Mr.  Cox,  in  the  previous  congress,  had 
clearly  seen  the  drift  of  events,  and  warned  his 
countrymen  of  the  South  in  impassioned  elo 
quence,  to  desist.  "In  Washington's  sacred 
name,"  he  had  pleaded  in  the  winter  before,  while 
State  after  State  was  joining  the  procession  out  of 
the  Union,  "and  on  behalf  of  a  people  who  have 
ever  heeded  his  warning  and  never  wavered  in  the 
just  defense  of  the  South  or  of  the  North,  I  ap 
peal  to  Southern  men  who  contemplate  a  step  so 
fraught  with  hazard  and  strife,  to  pause.  Clouds 
are  about  us!  There  is  lightning  in  their  frown! 
Cannot  we  direct  it  harmlessly  to  the  earth?  The 
morning  and  evening  prayer  of  the  people  I  speak 
for  in  such  weakness,  rises  in  strength  to  that  Su 
preme  Ruler  who,  in  noticing  the  fall  of  a  sparrow, 
cannot  disregard  the  fall  of  a  nation,  that  our 
States  may  continue  to  be — as  they  have  been— 
one;  one  in  the  essence  of  a  national  being  ;one  as 
the  thought  of  God  is  One! 

"These  emblems  above  us,  in  their   canopy   of 


88  SAM  UEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

beauty,  each  displaying  the  symbol  of  State  inter 
est,  State  pride,  and  State  sovereignty,  let  not  one 
of  them  be  dimmed  by  the  rude  breath  of  passion, 
or  effaced  by  the  ruder  stroke  of  enmity.  They  all 
shine,  like  stars,  differing  in  glory,  in  their  many- 
hued  splendors,  by  the  light  of  the  same  orb,  even 
as  our  States  receive  their  lustre  from  the  Union, 
which  irradiates  and  glorifies  each  and  all."  Hav 
ing  fruitlessly  labored  to  avert  secession  in  the 
Thirty-sixth  Congress,  Mr.  Cox  came  to  the  extra 
session  of  the  Thirty-seventh  Congress  prepared  to 
sustain  the  administration  of  Lincoln  in  every  con 
stitutional  endeavor  to  put  down  the  rebellion. 

Judge  Holman  of  Indiana,  the  intimate  friend 
and  associate  for  so  many  years  of  Mr.  Cox,  bears 
this  testimony : — 

"When  the  Thirty-sixth  Congress  adjourned,  on 
the  4th  day  of  March,  1861,  Mr.  Cox  and  I  started 
homeward.  We  were  detained  a  day  at  Wheel 
ing,  Va.  We  spent  the  day  together,  talking  over 
the  impending  conflict.  Wre  both  knew,  as  all  men 
did,  that  war  was  inevitable.  What  position  we 
should  take  as  Democrats  in  Congress  in  relation 
to  the  coming  war,  w^hen  it  came,  was  considered 
from  every  standpoint.  There  was  no  hesitation 
on  the  part  of  either  of  us.  The  Union  must  be 
maintained  at  every  hazard.  No  vicissitude  of  for 
tune  in  the  conflict  of  arms  should  justify  ever  the 
consideration  of  the  question  of  the  dissolution  of 
the  Union.  The  administration  of  President  Lin 
coln  in  every  measure  deemed  necessary  or  proper 
to  uphold  the  Federal  authority  in  all  the  States 
of  the  Union  should  be  cordially  sustained.  The 
records  of  Congress  during  the  war  attest  how 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  89 

faithfully  Mr.  Cox  adhered  to  that  determination." 

Between  the  dates  of  Lincoln's  inauguration 
and  the  opening  of  the  extra  session  the  country 
had  been  shocked  by  the  sudden  death  of  Stephen 
A.  Douglas.  On  no  one  fell  the  loss  more  heavily 
than  on  Samuel  S.  Cox.  The  eulogy  of  the  depart 
ed  statesman  by  his  long-time  faithful  friend  in 
the  House,  was  affectingly  eloquent,  drawing  tears 
from  those  who  listened  to  it. 

Mr.  Douglas'  death  at  so  critical  a  juncture  of 
affairs,  when  his  counsel  and  influence  were  es 
pecially  needed,  was  deemed  a  great  public  loss. 
"Who,"  asked  his  eulogist,  "is  left  to  take  his 
place?  Alas!  he  has  no  successor.  His  eclipse  is 
painfully  palpable,  since  it  makes  more  obscure 
the  path  by  which  our  alienated  brethren  may  re 
turn." 

Mr.  Cox  was  now  serving  his  third  term,  as  Rep 
resentative  of  a  district  normally  Republican.  In 
each  contest,  desperate  efforts  had  been  made  to 
effect  his  defeat,  but  all  to  no  purpose.  The  happy 
thought  occurred  to  the  legislature  to  apply  the 
gerrymander  to  the  capital  district  of  Ohio,  and 
see  how  that  would  work  as  a  political  agency.  In 
the  new  district  Samuel  Shellabarger,  credited 
with  exceptional  strength  as  a  candidate,  entered 
the  lists  against  the  young  but,  in  point  of  service, 
already  veteran  member.  Again,  however,  Mr. 
Cox  was  elected,  although  his  majority  was, 
through  the  process  referred  to,  cut  down  to  272. 

A  glimpse  of  "war  times"  on  the  border  between 
the  contending  armies  is  afforded  by  the  follow 
ing  private  note  from  the  venerable  Kentucky 
statesman,  Hon.  J.  J.  Crittenden,  acknowledging 


90  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

an  invitation  from  Mr.  Cox  to  make  his  home  at 
Columbus  his  refuge  during  the  rebel  raids  of  Ken 
tucky.  Under  date  Louisville,  September  26, 1862, 
he  wrote: — 

"Soon  after  I  was  compelled  to  leave  my  home 
and  come  to  this  place  to  avoid  falling  into  the 
hands  of  the  Rebels,  I  received  from  the  Hon.  S. 
S.  Cox  a  very  kind  letter  of  invitation  for  myself 
and  wife  to  come  to  his  house  and  remain  with  him 
during  the  present  hostile  and  formidable  invasion 
of  Kentucky.  Please  to  present  him  my  best  ac 
knowledgments  for  that  hospitable  invitation  and 
say  to  him  I  could  not  leave  Kentucky  at  such  a 
time.  I  must  remain  with  her,  if  it  be  only  to 
share  in  her  troubles  and  her  dangers.  *  *  * 
Be  pleased  also  to  give  to  Mr.  Cox  my  heartiest  and 
best  wishes  for  his  re-election  to  Congress.  I  have 
had  my  prejudices  against  him,  but  he  overcame 
them  entirely  by  his  conduct  and  course  in  the 
present  Congress, — his  course  in  my  opinion  ju 
dicious,  intelligent  and  patriotic,  opposing  stead 
ily  that  abolition  policy  which  sought  to  convert 
this  holy  war  for  the  defence  of  the  government 
and  the  union  into  a  mere  anti-slavery  party  war — 
a  policy  calculated  to  prolong  and  embitter  the 
bloody  war,  without  doing  any  good  to  the  white 
or  to  the  black  man.  It  is  for  the  country  to  decide 
whether  such  a  policy  should  prevail.  It  is  for  his 
opposition  to  it  that  I  feel  a  solicitude  for  the 
election  of  Mr.  Cox." 

Besides  his  magnetic  hold  on  the  affections  of 
the  people,  Mr.  Cox,  by  his  support  of  every  Consti 
tutional  measure  for  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  the 
war,  drew  to  himself  a  large  Republican  vote. 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  91 

The  Thirty-eighth  Congress,  the  fourth  to  which 
Mr.  Cox  had  been  elected,  met  December  5,  1863. 
The  battle  of  Gettysburg  had  been  fought  in  the 
previous  July,  and  although  the  advancing  legions 
of  the  Confederacy  had  been  turned  back,  some  of 
the  most  desperate  fighting  of  the  war  remained. 
Mr.  Cox  had,  from  his  second  term,  served  on  the 
Committee  of  Foreign  Affairs,  and  had  enjoyed  in 
an  eminent  degree  the  confidence  of  the  Secretary 
of  State,  William  H.  Seward.  This  Congress  it  was 
that  submitted  to  the  States  the  Thirteenth 
Amendment  to  the  Constitution  abolishing  slav 
ery.  That  institution  had  already  been  abolished 
in  fact — abolished  by  the  Proclamation  of  Emanci 
pation  issued  by  President  Lincoln  in  1862.  It  was 
desired,  however,  to  place  the  work  of  the  Procla 
mation  beyond  any  possible  question  by  incorpor 
ating  it  in  the  Supreme  law  of  the  land.  Mr.  Cox 
did  not  vote  for  this  amendment,  although  he  was 
disposed  to  favor  it.  In  his  Three  Decades  he  ex 
plains  this  seeming  contradiction.  He  had,  he 
says,  left  himself  free  to  vote  for  it,  in  case  its  pas 
sage  would  not  interfere  with  attempts  at  peace 
negotiations.  He  fully  intended,  when  he  went  to 
the  House  at  noon  of  the  last  day  of  January,  1865 
— the  day  fixed  for  taking  the  vote — to  cast  his 
vote  for  the  amendment.  But  on  arriving  at  the 
House  he  learned  that  commissioners  to  conclude 
peace  were  actually  waiting  to  be  conducted 
across  the  lines.  Fearing  that  action  on  the 
amendment  at  that  critical  juncture  might  prove  a 
serious  obstacle  to  peace  negotiations,  Mr.  Cox 
cast  his  vote  against  the  amendment — a  vote  to  be 
construed  rather  against  the  expediency  of  its 


92  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

adoption  at  that  particular  time  than  against  the 
abstract  principle  the  amendment  involved. 

In  connection  with  this  vote,  Mr.  Cox  relates  the 
following  interesting  incident:— 

"In  striving  to  stay  hostilities  and  prevent 
butchery,  the  author  (of  the  Three  Decades)  uncon 
sciously  saved  his  personal  probity  from  unde 
served  reproach.  This  is  the  incident.  He  was 
boarding  at  the  house  of  an  active  radical  Repub 
lican  who  had  been  on  General  Fremont's  staff. 
The  writer  had  spoken,  in  confidence,  about  the 
table  and  under  the  roof  of  this  landlord  of  his  in 
tention  to  vote  for  the  amendment.  One  vote  was 
then  most  momentous  to  make  the  requisite  two- 
thirds.  This  ex-soldier  of  fortune  counted,  in  a 
mercenary  way,  on  improving  his  purse  by  his  con 
fidential  information.  When  the  writer  returned 
to  his  Tuesday  dinner,  having  given  under  the  cir 
cumstances  an  adverse  vote,  the  irascible  radical 
broke  forth  into  such  a  torrent  of  abuse  against 
the  writer,  that  the  latter  left  the  table  in  disgust 
and  bewilderment.  The  abuser  in  his  wrath 
averred — what  he  afterwards,  when  stricken  with 
blindness  and  repentant,  directed  his  good  wife  to 
asseverate  in  writing — that  he  was  to  get  ten  thou 
sand  dollars  from  New  York  parties  for  influenc 
ing  the  writer's  vote  favorably  to  the  amendment. 
The  wiiter  discovered  the  party  who  raised  the 
fund  which  was  said  to  be  ready  and  freely  used 
for  corrupting  members.  Can  anything  be  con 
ceived  more  monstrous  than  this  attempt  to  amend 
the  Constitution  upon  such  a  humane  and  glori 
ous  theme,  by  the  aid  of  the  lucre  of  officeholders? 
This  statement  was  made  in  Congress  after  the 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  93 

war,  and  with  much  detail.  It  was  never  chal 
lenged.  It  is  true."  This  would  have  been  by  no 
means  the  first  instance  of  a  legislator's  vote  being 
sold  with  no  knowledge  of  the  transaction  on  the 
part  of  the  man  who  cast  the  vote. 

Mr.  Cox  was  about  to  suffer  his  first  defeat  at 
the  hands  of  the  people.  It  was  the  fall  of  1864, 
Lincoln  was  a  candidate  for  re-election,  and  Gen. 
McClellan  was  his  Democratic  opponent.  Mr.  Cox 
wras,  for  the  fifth  time,  his  party's  nominee  to  rep 
resent  the  Columbus  district  in  Congress.  Again 
his  opponent  wras  Samuel  S.  Shellabarger.  The 
tide  set  in  strongly  in  favor  of  Republicanism,  and 
Shellabarger  was  swept  into  Congress  by  the  enor 
mous  majority  of  3,169.  The  soldier  vote,  which 
was  forwarded  from  field  and  camp,  contributed 
largely  to  this  result.  With  the  completion  of  Mr. 
Cox's  term,  on  March  4, 1865,  the  curtain  was  rung 
down  on  the  last  scene  of  a  drama  which  had  been 
eight  years  on  the  boards.  After  long  wandering 
in  the  wilderness,  the  Canaan  of  peace  was  just 
ahead.  Mr.  Cox,  as  Congressman,  was  permitted 
to  see  its  dawn,  but  not  its  noonday.  Within  six 
weeks  after  his  retirement  from  Congress,  Rich 
mond  had  fallen.  Lee  had  turned  over  his  sword  to 
Grant  in  the  shade  of  the  Appomattox  apple  tree, 
and,  in  the  midst  of  the  country's  hallelujahs,  had 
come  the  shock  of  Lincoln's  assassination.  Events 
of  mighty  import  to  the  nation  trod  on  one  anoth 
er's  heels  thick  and  fast  in  tho'se  six  weeks.  Mr.Cox, 
from  his  retirement  looked  back  upon  eight  years 
of  honorable  service  in  the  most  momentous  era  of 
the  nation's  history — the  era  which  led  up  to,  and 
paralleled,  the  civil  war. 


94  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

Throughout  the  long  struggle  Mr.  Cox  consist 
ently  supported  every  constitutional  measure  for 
the  suppression  of  the  rebellion,  but  was  unspar 
ing  in  his  criticism  of  measures  which  seemed  to 
him  to  be  unnecessarily  arbitrary  and  to  infringe 
upon  personal  liberty.  Between  himself  and 
President  Lincoln  the  friendliest  relations  existed. 
Among  Mr.  Cox's  private  papers  appears 
the  following  autograph  letter,  written  by  Presi 
dent  Lincoln,  a  few  weeks  before  his  assassina 
tion: 

Executive  Mansion  Washington, 

January  31,  1865. 
Hon.  S.  S.  Cox, 

My  Dear   Sir — Thank  you   for  the   speech.     I 
sought  it  for  the  humor  said  to  be  in  it;  but  while 
it  meets  expectation  in  that  respect,  it  has  a  far 
higher  merit,  so  far  as  I  can  judge  by  the  hasty 
glance  I  have  only  found  time  to  give  it. 
Yours  truly, 

A.  Lincoln. 

Prefacing  his  volume  "Eight  Years  in  Con 
gress,"  Mr.  Cox  recalled  with  pardonable  pride  the 
part  he  had  taken  in  those  stirring  scenes.  Ad 
dressing  his  old  constituents  he  says:  "I  repre 
sented  you  truly,  when  I  warned  and  worked  from 
1856  to  1860  against  the  passionate  zealotry  of 
North  and  South;  when  I  denounced,  in  and  out 
of  Congress,  the  bad  fallacy  and  worse  conduct  of 
the  secessionists;  when  I  voted  to  avert  the  im 
pending  war  by  every  measure  of  adjustment;  and 
when,  after  the  war  came,  by  my  votes  for  money 
and  men,  I  aided  the  administration  in  maintain 
ing  the  Federal  authority  over  the  insurgent 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  95 

states.  Sustained  by  you,  I  supported  every  meas 
ure  which  was  constitutional  and  expedient,  to 
crush  the  rebellion.  In  the  perusal  of  these 
pages,"  he  added,  "no  one  will  find  any  aid,  by 
speech  or  vote,  given  to  those  who  raised  the  stan 
dard  of  revolt." 

Valued  testimony  to  Mr.  Cox's  services  in  sup 
port  of  war  measures  and  notably  of  the  amend 
ment  to  abolish  slavery,  was  borne  by  no  less  a 
personage  than  William  H.  Seward,  the  illustrious 
premier  of  the  Lincoln  administration.  In  a  pub 
lic  speech,  delivered  at  Auburn,  his  home,  in  Octo 
ber,  1868,  Secretary  Seward  said: 

"I  entertain  no  ill  will  towards  the  democratic 
party  or  its  leaders,  and  certainly  have  no  unchar 
itable  feelings  toward  that  great  constituency. 
On  the  other  hand,  I  cherish  a  grateful  apprecia 
tion  of  the  patriotism,  the  magnanimity,  the  hero 
ism  of  many  of  my  fellow  citizens,  with  whom  I 
have  cheerfully  labored  and  co-operated  while 
they  still  retained  their  adhesion  to  the  Democrat 
ic  party.  How  could  I  distrust  the  loyalty  or  the 
virtue  of  Andrew  Johnson,  of  General  Hancock, 
of  General  McClellan,  of  Senator  Hendricks,  of 
Indiana,  Mr.  Niblack,  or  of  Mr.  Cox,  formerly  of 
Ohio,  to  whom  personally,  more  than  any  other 
member,  is  due  the  passage  of  the  constitutional 
amendment  in  Congress  abolishing  African  slav 
ery." 


CHAPTER  X. 

REMOVAL  TO   NEW  YORK. 

At  the  close  of  his  eight  years'  service  in  Con 
gress,  Mr.  Cox,  tired  of  public  life,  and  in  the  be 
lief  that  he  was  through  with  it,  decided  to  re 
move  to  the  city  of  New  York,  and  take  up  again 
the  practice  of  the  law.  In  this  he  had  a  partner, 
Mr.  Charlton  T.  Lewis.  In  dedicating  his  volume, 
"Eight  Years  in  Congress,"  to  his  constituents,  re 
ferring  to  the  conflicts  illustrated  therein,  he  had 
said:  "I  have  had  my  share  of  such  conflicts.  No 
ambition  now  actuates  me  save  that  I  may  be  in 
strumental,  through  these  pages,  in  mirroring  the 
past  eight  years,  with  the  clearness  and  fidelity  of 
truth."  Few  men  at  forty  could  boast  a  public 
service  so  long  and  distinguished,  coupled  with 
accumulation  of  so  rich  a  store  and  such  marvel 
ous  versatilities  of  general  culture. 

Although  settled  down  to  the  routine  of  a  New 
York  lawyer,  Mr.  Cox  was  not  to  be  permitted  a 
long  respite  from  public  service.  He  relates  an  in 
teresting  incident  respecting  the  attempted  im 
peachment  of  President  Andrew  Johnson,  in  the 
winter  of  1868.  During  the  trial  Mr.  Cox  received 
a  dispatch  summoning  him  to  Washington.  The 
success  of  the  impeachers,  it  was  understood, 
hinged  on  one  vote — that  of  Senator  Henderson, 
of  Missouri.  With  this  Senator,  Mr.  Cox  was 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  97 

known  to  be  on  terms  of  close  intimacy.  It  was 
thought  that  Mr.  Cox's  influence  might  resolve  the 
doubts  in  the  Senator's  mind,  and  persuade  him 
to  cast  his  vote  against  impeachment. 

Mr.  Cox  obeyed  the  summons,  and  was  soon  in 
Washington,  closeted  with  the  Missouri  Senator. 
The  sequel  is  thus  told  by  Mr.  Cox:  "A  public 
meeting  had  just  been  held  at  Srt.  Louis,  to  in 
struct  the  Senator  to  vote  'guilty.'  His  sense  of 
justice  had  been  affronted  by  this.  In  this  mood 
the  writer  found  him.  He  seemed  to  want  advice 
and  counsel.  It  was  not  long  before  the  writer 
was  requested  by  the  Senator  to  pen  and  send  a 
telegram  to  the  president  and  officers  of  that  im 
pudent  St.  Louis  meeting.  It  substantially  read: 
'I  am  a  judge  in  the  impeachment  case.  You  have 
no  right  to  instruct  me  in  such  affairs.  As  I  am 
an  honest  man  I  will  obey  my  conscience,  and  not 
your  will.  I  shall  vote  'not  guilty.' '  And  he  did 
so  vote.  A  copy  of  that  telegram  the  writer  took 
to  the  White  House  at  midnight.  He  found  the 
President  gloomy.  His  fate  depended  on  one  vote 
—nay,  on  this  one  Missouri  vote.  Grimes  and 
Ross  were  sure,  but  Henderson  was  not.  The  tele 
gram  was  read  to  the  President.  A  festivity  was 
improvised  on  the  good  news;  and  the  morning 
dawned  with  roseate  hues  for  all  interested  in  the 
righteousness  of  the  President's  acquittal,  and  the 
certainty  of  the  vindication  of  a  President,  than 
whom  no  man  was  ever  more  vilipended  without 
justifiable  cause." 

The  object  of  Mr.  Cox's  mission  to  Washington 
was  accomplished;  the  impeachers  were  foiled; 
and  the  President  was  saved. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

RETURNS  TO  CONGRESS. 

In  leaving  Congress  four  years  before  Mr.  Cox 
had  said  "adieu;"  but  fate  turned  it  into  an  "au 
revoir."  In  the  fall  of  1868  he  was  nominated  for 
Congress  by  his  party  representatives  in  the  Sixth 
district,  and  was  elected  over  George  Starr,  a 
popular  Republican,  by  2,680.  Then  began  a  Con 
gressional  service  of  twenty  years,  scarcely  inter 
rupted  till  his  death.  In  fact  he  was  a  member,  at 
one  stage  or  another,  of  every  Congress  that  sat 
thereafter,  so  long  as  he  lived — from  the  Forty- 
first  to  the  Fifty-first  inclusive. 

Heretofore  he  had  represented  the  Capital  dis 
trict  of  Ohio.  Henceforth  he  was  to  represent  in 
part  the  great  city  of  New  York. 

Shortly  after  his  election  Mr.  Cox,  accompanied 
by  his  wife,  as  ever  on  his  travels,  prompted  by 
impaired  health,  set  sail  for  Europe,  returning  the 
following  autumn  in  time  for  the  opening  of  Con 
gress. 

"Mr.  Cox,"  writes  the  companion  of  his  travels, 
"was  worn  out  with  the  campaign  of  '67  or  '68  and 
the  doctor  ordered  him  abroad.  He  had  then 
symptoms  of  lung  trouble — slight  hemorrhages, 
&c.,  so  we  started  for  Jerusalem.  Bought  a  trunk 
full  of  maps  and  books,  to  study  up  Palestine  and 
the  Orient.  Arrived  at  Mentone,  Dr.  Bennett 


DR.  HENRY  BENNETT, 
Cox's  Physician  in  Europe  (i86q),  in  his  Garden  at  Mentone. 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  99 

nearly  took  my  breath  away  in  his  consultation. 
"Mrs.  Cox  I  will  not  answer  for  the  life  of  your 
husband,  if  he  travels  in  this  condition!"  "What 
shall  I  do,  Doctor?"  "Stay  the  winter  here  or  in  Al 
giers.  Stay  here  or  at  Nice  and  I  will  invite  you  (a 
thing  I  rarely  do),  to  go  as  my  patients  in  the 
spring  to  Algiers.  If  Mr.  Cox  wearies,  take  him  a 
short  trip  to  Corsica.  It  is  unbeaten  track." 

"So  ended  our  'second  grand  campaign!'  For 
we  had  given  it  almost  as  much  thought  as  the  po 
litical  campaign!  Mr.  Cox  convinced  by  physician 
and  wife,  remained  and  we  had  a  very  delightful 
winter  on  the  Riviera — extending  to  Vallembrosa 
in  Cannes  and  during  the  mild  winter  accom 
plished  our  trip  to  Corsica — perhaps  the  most 
unique  of  any  of  our  foreign  sojournings. 

"In  the  spring  Dr.  Bennett  and  an  uncle,  an  old 
India  campaigner,  with  Mr.  Cox  and  myself  took 
the  steamer  for  Algiers  and  finished  the  African 
and  Spanish  trip  which  he  pictures  in  his  'Search 
for  Winter  Sunbeams.' " 

In  this  charming  volume,  which  he  dedicated  to 
his  constituents  of  the  Sixth  Congressional  dis 
trict  of  New  York,  he  has  told  the  story  of  his 
travels  during  that  year.  "My  circle,"  in  a  resume 
of  his  journeys  he  writes,  "began  at  the  Riviera 
under  the  Alps;  it  includes  Corsica;  thence  enters 
into  Africa,  and  passes  through  Spain  and  South 
ern  France,  until,  again  in  the  Alps  of  Italy,  it 
ends,  with  a  view  so  eminent,  that  it  seems  to  com 
prehend  the  whole  sweep  of  nearly  a  year's  tour  of 
travel." 

The  day  that  witnessed  the  return  of  Samuel 
Sullivan  Cox  to  Congress  signaled  the  election  of 


100  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

Gen.  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  over  Horatio  Seymour,  to 
the  Presidency.  The  country  was  still  struggling 
with  the  problem  of  reconstruction.  The  passions 
of  the  war  were  still  far  from  being  burned  out. 
Mr.  Cox  believed  that  the  greatest  bar  to  a  com 
plete  restoration  of  the  union  was  the  political 
ostracism  of  the  men  who  had  borne  arms  against 
the  United  States.  Accordingly  one  of  his  first 
acts,  on  returning  to  the  familiar  scenes  of  Con 
gress,  was  the  introduction  of  a  general  amnesty 
bill.  That  was  in  1869.  He  explains  that  his  ob 
ject  in  Congressional  service  was,  since  war 
could  not  be  alleviated  of  its  cruelties,  to  mitigate, 
in  so  far  as  it  could  be  done,  the  prescriptive  tend 
ency  which  kept  our  people  separated  by  a  great 
chasm.  Mr.  Cox's  bill  came  wTithin  two  votes  of 
passing  the  House,  James  G.  Elaine  being  the 
Speaker,  although  under  the  fourteenth  amend 
ment  a  two-thirds  vote  was  required.  Mr.  Cox 
urged  the  measure  with  all  the  force  and  elo 
quence  he  could  command.  The  emphatic  endorse 
ment  of  his  proposition  by  so  large  a  majority — al 
though  falling  just  short  of  the  requisite  two- 
thirds — in  a  House  politically  hostile,  was  a  de 
cided  personal  triumph.  But  he  did  not  give  up 
the  fight.  In  Congress  after  Congress  he  sought 
the  passage  of  a  bill  bestowing  general  amnesty 
upon  the  South,  as  the  shortest  and  quickest  road 
to  complete  reconciliation.  Speaker  Elaine  had, 
according  to  Mr.  Cox,  authorized  the  Committee 
on  Kules,  of  which  both  were  members,  to  report 
such  a  measure,  only  to  retreat  precipitately  from 
the  high  ground  he  occupied  in  Committe,  so  soon 
as  the  bill  reached  the  House.  However  that  was, 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  101 

it  is  certain  that  such  progress  towards  amnesty 
as  was  made  in  Mr.  Cox's  day,  was  due  in  large 
degree  to  his  untiring  efforts  and  indomitable  per 
severance. 

Mr.  Cox's  antagonist  in  the  Congressional  elec 
tion  of  1870  was  the  famous  editor  of  the  New 
York  Tribune,  Horace  Greeley.  Mr.  Cox's  ma 
jority  was  1,025.  TWTO  years  later  the  two  were 
running  on  the  same  ticket,  the  one  for  President, 
the  other  for  Congressman-at-large.  The  Forty- 
second  Congress,  which  came  into  being  March  4, 
1871,  and  died  March  4,  1873,  was  the  first  to  have 
on  its  roll  the  names  of  representatives  of  the 
lately  enslaved  race.  In  this  Congress  Mr.  Co* 
made  a  persistent  but  ineffectual  fight  against  the 
test  oath  system — seeking  to  abolish  the  entire 
system  in  its  application  alike  to  jurors,  and  all 
officers,  including  Congressmen.  In  its  place,  how 
ever,  a  modified  measure  wa&  passed  applying  to 
the  oath  to  be  administered  to  members  of  Con 
gress,  but  not  to  jurors.  But  complete  triumph 
came  to  Mr.  Cox  two  decades  after  the  war,  when 
President  Arthur,  on  May  13,  1884,  signed  the  bill 
repealing  both  the  iron-clad  oath  and  the  jury- 
test  oath. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


RACE  FOR  CONGRESSMAN- AT-LARGE. 

Mr.  Cox's  next  race  for  congress,  made  in  the 
fall  of  1872,  was  under  new  conditions  and  in 
strange  company.  The  revolt  in  the  Republican 
party  against  Grant,  had  resulted  in  the  nomina 
tion  at  Cincinnati  of  Horace  Greeley  for  President, 
and  his  adoption  as  Presidential  candidate  by  the 
Democratic  National  Convention  at  Baltimore. 
This  action  was  followed  by  a  practical  fusion,  a 
modus  vivendi,  of  the  Democrats  and  Liberal  (an 
ti-Grant)  Republicans  in  several  of  the  States,  in 
cluding  New  York.  The  Democratic  State  Con 
vention  at  Syracuse,  meeting  concurrently  with 
the  Liberal  Republican  State  Convention  held  in 
another  hall  in  the  same  city,  made  a  fusion  ticket 
headed  by  Francis  Kernan  for  Governor,  with 
Chauncey  M.  Depew  for  Lieutenant  Governor,  and 
Samuel  S.  Cox  for  representative  in  Congress  at 
large.  A  new  apportionment  had  given  New 
York  an  additional  representative,  who,  for  this 
time — the  Legislature  not  yet  having  redistricted 
the  State — was  to  be  elected  from  the  State  at 
large.  Mr.  Cox's  acknowledged  strength  with  the 
masses  of  voters  over  the  entire  State  led  natur 
ally  to  his  selection,  when  strength  for  the  mon 
grel  ticket  was  the  one  thing  needed  and  sought. 
It  was  a  curious  combination,  Horace  Greeley,  the 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  103 

high  priest  of  protection,  and  life-long  foe  of  De 
mocracy,  at  its  head;  Francis  Kernan,  a  Democrat 
of  Democrats,  yoked  with  Chauncey  M.  Depew, 
who  never  had  been  aught  but  a  Eepublican 
throughout;  and  Samuel  S.  Cox,  an  avowed  advo 
cate  of  free  trade,  and  the  antipode  in  general  of 
the  editor  of  the  Tribune.  Mr.  Cox  was  carried 
down  with  the  rest  of  the  strange  company  in 
which  he  had  been  placed.  It  was  his  second  and 
last  defeat  before  the  people — his  defeat  in  his 
Ohio  district  having  been  his  first.  Although  he 
ran  ahead  of  his  ticket,  Mr.  Cox  was  defeated  by 
Lyman  Tremain,  ex-attorney  general  of  New  York, 
by  a  majority  of  37,699. 

Mr.  Cox  was  on  the  stump  for  Greeley  and  the 
rest  of  the  Democratic  ticket  throughout  the  cam 
paign.  Greeley's  nomination  had  been  accepted 
by  the  Democrats  for  the  promise  it  gave  that  his 
election  meant  amnesty  and  reconciliation,  and  a 
return  of  peace  and  good-will  between  the  lately 
warring  sctions.  "The  Democracy,"  said  Mr.  Cox 
from  the  stump,  in  justification  of  the  seemingly 
inconsistent  policy  of  the  party  in  adopting  a  life 
long  antagonist  as  its  candidate  for  President, 
"should  remember  that,  while  in  the  heat  and  dust 
of  other  strifes  Horace  Greeley  has  not  spared 
them,  yet,  in  generous  rivalry,  he  has  endeavored 
with  them  to  pursue  the  paths  of  peace.  If  elected, 
he  will,  under  God,  impress  his  administration 
with  sentiments  mellowed  by  new  associations, 
with  charities  silvered  over  by  advancing  years, 
and  with  a  reverence  for  the  hallowed  traditions 
of  our  early  national  career,  made  glorious  by  that 
Democracy  which  has,  in  the  vicissitudes  of  par- 


104  SAM  UEL  SULLI VAN  COX 

ties,  become  his  ally  in  that  progress,  and  a  sharer 
in  the  common  blessings  and  glories  which  his  ad 
ministration  would  bestow.  The  fulness  of  those 
blessings  will  come  to  our  country,  because  they 
will  be  inspired  by  the  spirit  of  reconciliation." 

But  the  country  was  not  yet  ready,  nor  was  the 
time  ripe,  for  the  proposed  change.  As  Mr.  Cox 
himself,  years  after,  expressed  it:  "Civil  govern 
ments  South  were  still  disorganized;  lawlessness 
South  begat  timidity  North;  the  military  spirit 
was  still  rife  and  rampant;  and  the  issues  of  the 
war  were  still  uppermost  in  men's  minds."  Re 
conciliation  came,  but  years  later. 

During  that  memorable  campaign  an  epidemic 
of  the  epizootic  seized  upon  the  equines  of  the 
country,  almost  completely  paralyzing  industries 
dependent  upon  the  use  of  horses.  Writing  from 
the  stump  to  a  friend  Mr.  Cox  made  playful  refer 
ence  to  this  epidemic  and  the  general  tendency  of 
campaign  orators  to  charge  all  existing  ills  to  the 
party  in  power.  "I  lay  the  horse  distemper,"  wrote 
Mr.  Cox,  "to  Grant.  Run  me  as  the  anti-epizootic 
candidate- at-large!"  On  the  heels  of  the  disaster, 
with  his  habit  of  looking  for  the  silver  lining  to 
every  cloud,  he  again  wrote:  "One  of  my  chief 
joys,  not  a  'crumb'  but  a  whole  festivity  of  de 
lights  was  the  friendships  I  had  formed  in  my  cam 
paign  over  the  State.  My  heart  goes  out  'at  large' 
to  them.  I  am  thoroughly  dazed,"  he  added, 
"with  the  result  in  the  country." 

On  the  result  of  the  election  being  known,  Mr. 
Cox  at  once  wrote  to  his  successful  competitor  con 
gratulating  him  on  his  victory.  This  letter 
brought  from  Mr.  Tremain  the  following  reply: 


SAMUEL  S(ULLIVAN  COX  105 

"Albany,  Nov.  llth,  1872. 
Hon.  S.  S.  Cox. 

My  Dear  Sir — Accept  my  thanks  for  the  friendly 
sentiments  expressed  in  your  valued  favor  of  the 
9th  inst,,  which,  I  assure  you,  are  heartily  recipro 
cated  on  my  part.  When  I  went  to  Hart's  studio 
in  Florence  with  our  mutual  friend 
and  your  warm  admirer,  Captain  Boyd, 
to  view  your  excellent  bust,  little  did  I 
dream  that  we  should  be  opposing  candidates  for 
the  office  of  member  of  congress.  But,  as  Mr.  Lin 
coln  truly  observed,  we  are  controlled  by  events 
and  circumstances.  The  recent  canvass,  earnest 
and  exciting  as  it  has  been,  has  left  no  rankling 
wounds  in  my  breast,  nor  any  other  than  the  kind 
liest  personal  feelings  towards  a  gentleman  so  uni 
versally  esteemed  for  his  genial  qualities  as  my 
distinguished  opponent.  Rejoicing  in  the  convic 
tion  that  our  political  antagonism  has  in  no  man 
ner  disturbed  our  personal  relations,  I  have  the 
honor  to  be  Yours  very  truly, 

Lyman  Tremain." 

Again  Mr.  Cox  supposed  his  Congressional  car 
eer  to  be  forever  closed.  Again  he  awoke  to  find 
his  mistake — his  services  were  too  important  to  be 
dispensed  with. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


The  second  session  of  the  Forty-second  Con 
gress,  expiring  March  4,  1873,  to  attend  which  Mr. 
Cox  returned  to  the  National  Capital  the  month 
folowing  the  "Greeley  fiasco,"  and  his  own  defeat, 
short  as  it  was,  proved  long  enough  to  earn  for 
that  Congress  unenviable  notoriety.  At  this  ses 
sion  the  "back  pay  grab,"  as  the  law  increasing 
the  salary  of  a  Congressman  was  popularly 
known,  was  placed  upon  the  Federal  statute  book. 
Its  most  obnoxious  feature,  in  the  popular  estima 
tion,  was  its  retro-active  provision,  dating  the  in 
crease  of  salary  two  years  back,  to  the  beginning 
of  the  life  of  that  Congress.  The  bill  found  in  Mr. 
Cox  a  vigorous  opponent.  When,  despite  his  ef 
forts  to  compass  its  defeat,  the  bill  became  a  law, 
Mr.  Cox,  refusing  to  profit  therefrom,  turned  his 
share  of  the  "steal"  back  into  the  public  treasury. 
Mr.  Cox  felt  keenly  the  infamy  the  "back  pay"  law 
had  brought  upon  Congress.  In  a  private  letter 
written  a  few  days  after  the  adjournment  he  said: 
"I  did  all  I  knew  in  the  last  Congress,  but  it  seems 
as  if  even  the  decent  people  in  Congress  are  em 
balmed  in  a  common  infamy  with  the  worst.  This 
is  discouraging.  I  spoke  and  voted  against  every 
phase  of  the  'Back  Pay.'  "  Stating  that  he  had 
returned  his  own  portion  to  the  United  States 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  107 

treasury,  "where  it  belonged,"  he  added:  "I  didn't 
expect  it  when  I  served;  I  did  not  contract  for  it; 
I  am  happy  in  being  rid  of  it.  I  am  foolish  enough 
to  take  a  pride  in  having  my  old  constituents,  and 
my  last  fall's  supporters,  400,000  good  fellows, 
think  I  am  not  a  mean  person,  nor  a  selfish  legisla 
tor." 

The  Treasury  receipt  of  the  "grab"  which  he  had 
spurned  reads  as  follows: 

"Treasury  of  the  United  States, 

Washington,  April  30,  1873. 
Sir: — For  $4,312,  received  as  per  yours  of  the 
20th  instant,  I  enclose  duplicates  of  my  certificate 
of  deposit  No.  7,960,  on  account  of  miscellaneous 
receipts  received  from  John  A.  Hardenbergh,  New 
York,  as  a  deposit  from  Hon.  S.  S.  Cox,  being 
amount  retroactive  salary  due  him  as  member 
Forty-second  Congress  by  act  approved  March  3, 
1873. 

Forty-eight  hundred  and  twelve  dollars  original 
certificate  of  deposit  sent  to  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury.  Very  respectfully, 

F.  B.  SPIN  NEK, 
Treasurer  United  States. 
John  A.  Hardenbergh, 
No.  112  Broadway,  New  York." 

Many  a  member  of  that  Congress  returned  home 
with  the  "back  pay"  in  his  pocket  only  to  meet  a 
frowning  and  unforgiving  constituency.  Many  a 
member  of  that  Congress,  having  pocketed  the 
"back  pay,"  dated  his  retirement  to  private  life 
from  that  untoward  event. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

AGAIN  RETURNS  TO  CONGRESS. 

Relieved,  as  lie  supposed,  from  public  cares, 
possibly  permanently,  Mr.  Cox  had  planned  an 
other  trip  abroad,  when  intelligence  was  brought 
him  of  the  critical  illness  of  his  venerable  father. 
Between  father  and  son  the  bond  of  affection  was 
exceedingly  strong.  He  hurried  to  his  father's 
bedside  in  Ohio  and  awaited  the  end. 
Writing  of  his  father's  death  (which 
occurred  May  18,  1873,  at  Zanesville),  Mr. 
Cox  says:  "We  buried  my  father  on  Tuesday.  I 
can  hardly  realize  the  loss.  It  seems  as  if  my  life, 
private  and  public,  had  been  mostly  to  please 
him."  Owing  to  this  affliction  the  projected  tour 
abroad  was  abandoned.  "I  must,"  he  wrote,  "give 
up  my  foreign  trip  for  the  present.  My  mother 
cannot  bear  the  idea  of  my  being  cat  of  the  coun 
try.  So  I  am  to  be  here  for  a  time  at  least,  if  not 
for  the  year." 

Events  other  than  domestic  affliction,  as  it 
proved,  contributed  to  the  postponement  of  the 
trip  he  had  planned,  for  the  summer,  in  the  old 
world.  The  death  of  James  Brooks,  a  distin 
guished  Representative  in  Congress  from  the  new 
Sixth  District  in  New  York,  had  created  a  vacancy 
in  the  new  Congress,  which  Mr.  Cox  was  asked  to 
fill.  Consenting  to  the  use  of  his  name,  he  was,  in 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  109 

the  fall  of  1873,  elected  by  the  large  majority  of 
6,932.  He  took  his  seat  at  the  opening  of  Con 
gress,  in  December.  Thus  it  happened  that  there 
was  no  actual  gap  in  his  Congressional  service 
caused  by  his  defeat  in  1872.  Mr.  Elaine  was 
again,  for  the  third  consecutive  Congress,  in  the 
Speaker's  chair,  and  General  Butler,  of  Massachu 
setts,  was  the  acknowledged  leader  on  the  floor  of 
the  House.  Two  prominent  political  measures 
before  that  Congress  pushed  by  General  Butler 
with  all  his  characteristic  energy  and  determina 
tion  were  the  Force  Bill  and  the  Civil  Rights  Bill. 
The  opposition  to  these  measures  was  marshaled 
by  Samuel  J.  Randall  and  Samuel  S.  Cox.  The  Civil 
Rights  Bill  was  finally  passed,  but  the  dilatory 
tactics  of  the  minority,  under  the  leadership  of 
Messrs.  Cox  and  Randall,  were  fatal  to  the  Force 
Bill.  Referring  in  after  years  to  the  struggle  over 
the  Force  Bill,  Congressman  Bland,  of  Missouri, 
said:  "Justice  requires  me  to  say  that  the  strict 
impartiality  shown  by  Mr.  Blaine,  the  Speaker, 
during  this  memorable  contest  extorted  the  hig*h- 
est  warmth  of  admiration  from  his  political  op 
ponents.  In  that  fight  there  were  two  great  men 
and  great  characters  brought  more  prominently 
than  before  into  public  notice.  These  were  Samuel 
J.  Randall  and  Sullivan  Cox.  Mr.  Cox,"  in  Mr. 
Bland's  opinion,  "was  truly  our  Parnell  ,  while 
Mr.  Randall  in  many  characteristics  was  to  us  a 
Gladstone." 

To  the  next  Congress,  the  Forty-fourth,  Mr.  Cox 
was  elected  by  a  majority  of  10,334.  The  opposi 
tion  had  long  before  abandoned  all  attempts  to 
secure  his  defeat.  For  the  first  time  since  his  en 
try  into  Congress  eighteen  years  before,  when 


110  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

James  L.  Orr  was  chosen  speaker,  he  found  him 
self  in  a  House  controlled  by  his  party  friends. 
The  "tidal  wave"  of  1874  which  had  swept  over  the 
land,  had  overwhelmed  the  Republicans  in  the 
House  and  given  the  majority  to  the  Democrats. 
Mr.  Cox  was  prominently  mentioned  for  Speaker. 
He  had  beeen  named  for  that  position  by  his  party 
associates  when  a  nomination  was  but  an  empty 
honor.  Now  that  it  meant  an  election,  why  should 
the  nomination  not  be  conferred  upon  him?  He 
had  enthusiastic  supporters,  particularly  among 
Southern  and  Western  members.  It  was  a  trian 
gular  contest.  His  rivals  were  Samuel  J.  Randall 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  Michael  C.  Kerr  of  Indiana. 
The  choice  ultimately  fell  upon  Mr.  Kerr.  By  him 
Mr.  Cox  was  appointed  chairman  of  the  Commit 
tee  on  Banking  and  Currency.  The  rooms  of  this 
committee  were  historic.  They  were  the  old 
"Speaker's  rooms"  attached  to  the  former  hall  of 
Representatives,  and  so  used  during  the  first  nine 
days  of  Mr.  Cox's  service  in  Congress  before  the 
removal  to  the  present  Representative  Chamber. 
Here  it  was  John  Quincy  Adams,  stricken  while 
in  his  seat  as  a  representative  from  Massachusetts, 
was  carried,  and  saw  the  "last  of  earth."  A  bust 
of  the  famous  ex-President  and  champion  of  the 
right  of  petition,  placed  in  the  main  room,  com 
memorates  the  melancholy  event.  Before  the 
Forty-fourth  Congress  had  ended  its  existence, 
Mr.  Cox's  committee  rooms  became  additionally 
historic;  for  here,  by  his  courtesy,  met  the  House 
special  committee,  charged  with  the  duty  of  devis 
ing  some  peaceable  way  out  of  the  controversy 
which  then  threatened  to  embroil  the  country  in 
another  civil  war,  far  worse  than  the  one  from 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  111 

which  it  had  but  recently  emerged — a  controversy 
arising  from  an  election  for  the  Presidency.  The 
first  steps  towards  the  formation  of  the  electoral 
commission  were  here  taken.  Mr.  Cox,  although 
not  a  member  of  this  special  committee,  gave  the 
bill  it  presented  his  passive  support.  When  it  be 
came  evident  that  the  outcome  would  be  the  seat 
ing  of  Mr.  Hayes,  whom  he  had  opposed,  instead  of 
Mr.  Tilden,  whom  he  had  supported,  Mr.  Cox,  in  a 
speech  in  the  House  on  the  Louisiana  case,  washed 
his  hands  of  all  responsibility  for  the  conse 
quences. 

Mr.  Cox  refused,  however,  to  join  in  factious 
opposition  to  a  result  he  felt  bound  in  good  faith 
to  accept.  His  voice  and  vote  were  given  consis 
tently  for  loyal  acquiescence  in  what  he  believed 
to  be  a  reversal  of  the  popular  verdict,  but  still  a 
result  reached  through  the  forms  of  law. 

Early  in  the  first  session  of  this  Congress,  Speak 
er  Kerr  was  seized  with  a  critical,  and  as  it  proved, 
fatal  illness.  Speaker  Kerr  designated  Mr.  Cox 
from  time  to  time  to  fill  the  chair  during  his  brief 
absences,  until  the  Speaker  being  compelled  to 
leave  the  Capital  in  search  of  health,  the  House  on 
the  19th  of  June  formally  elected  Mr.  Cox  Speaker 
pro  tern.  It  was  a  Congress  embracing  on  the  one 
side  such  men  as  Randall,  Holman,  Hewitt,  Mills 
Lamar,  Tucker,  Morrison,  Watterson,  Hurd, 
Springer,  Knott  and  Blackburn,  and  on  the  other 
such  men  as  Blaine,  Garfield,  Gen.  Banks,  Kelley, 
Kasson  and  Hoar — an  unusual  aggregation  of  lum 
inous  intellects.  "Samuel  S.  Cox,"  said  one  of  his 
eulogists,  "shone  in  this  galaxy  like  a  star  of  the 
first  magnitude." 

While  acting  as  the  temporary  Speaker  of  the 


112  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

House,  Mr.  Cox  was  chosen  delegate  to  the  Demo 
cratic  National  Convention  at  St.  Louis,  and  left 
the  chair  to  attend  the  convention.  Milton  Sayler, 
of  Ohio,  was  chosen  to  fill  the  chair  during  Mr. 
Cox's  absence.  The  implied  understanding  was 
that  on  Mr.  Cox's  return  from  St.  Louis,  his  substi 
tute  would  relinquish  the  chair  to  its  former  occu 
pant.  That  this  was  not  done  was  one  of  the  in 
scrutabilities  of  public  life — one,  too,  which  Mr. 
Sayler  never  ventured  to  explain.  Meanwhile  Mr. 
Kerr  lay  dying  at  Alum  Springs,  West  Virginia. 
Thither  hastened  Mr.  Cox,  on  the  adjournment  of 
Congress,  to  the  bedside  of  his  friend.  In  a  letter 
to  a  friend,  dated  August  23,  1876,  Mr.  Cox  wrote: 
"I  have  been  weary  enough  from  service  in  Con 
gress  and  from  waiting  at  the  sad  ending  of  Mr. 
Kerr's  life."  Mr.  Cox's  eulogy  on  Speaker  Kerr, 
on  the  re-assembling  of  Congress,  matched  his  eul 
ogy,  sixteen  years  before,  of  Senator  Stephen  A. 
Douglas.  It  made  a  marked  impression  upon  the 
House.  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  of  Georgia,  who 
was  lying  ill  at  his  room  in  the  National  Hotel— 
the  room  in  which  Henry  Clay  died — and  w^ho  sup 
posed  his  own  end  near,  sent  for  Mr.  Cox.  As, 
accompanied  by  his  nephew,  Wm.  V.  Cox,  he  en 
tered  the  sick  room,  the  distinguished  Georgian 
said:  "I  have  heard  read  your  eloquent  eulogy  up 
on  Speaker  Kerr,  and  have  sent  for  you  to  make  a 
request — a  last  request.  Will  you  promise  to  de 
liver  my  eulogy  when  I  am  gone?"  Mr.  Cox's 
prompt  reply  was:  "I  would  like  you  to  promise  to 
make  my  eulogy.  You  wrill  be  the  survivor."  The 
Georgian  did  indeed  rally,  and  lived  years  of  use 
fulness.  He  crossed,  however,  to  the  other  shore, 
long  before  his  genial  friend. 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  113 

Mr.  Cox's  election  to  the  45th  Congress  was 
practically  unanimous.  Only  41  votes  were  cast 
against  him.  The  House  was  again  Democratic, 
and  Samuel  J.  Randall,  who  had  at  the  second  ses 
sion  of  the  Forty-fourth  congress  been  chosen  to 
succeed  the  lamented  Kerr,  was  again  the  Speaker. 
Mr.  Cox  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  committee 
on  the  Tenth  Census.  It  involved  a  work  in  which 
he  took  a  peculiar  pride.  He  was  the  author  of  the 
bill,  which  became  a  law  March  3,  1879,  providing 
for  the  census.  In  its  perfectness  no  census  the 
country  had  witnessed  could  compare  with  it.  Ex 
cept  his  legislative  achievements  in  the  Life  Sav 
ing  Service  and  for  the  Letter  Carriers,  nothing 
accomplished  by  Mr.  Cox  during  his  long  service  in 
Congress  gave  him  greater  pleasure,  or  was  a 
source  to  him  of  greater  pride  than  the  Tenth  Cen 
sus.  It  stands  to-day  a  monument  to  his  pains 
taking,  and  his  wonderful  grasp  of  details. 

He  was  re-elected  in  1878  to  the  Forty-sixth  Con 
gress,  and  in  1880  to  the  Forty-seventh  Congress 
by  pluralities  of  4,581  and  9,863  respectively.  In 
the  latter  year,  James  A.  Garfield,  who  had  been 
his  colleague  for  nearly  two  decades,  was  elected 
President,  and  with  him  was  returned,  for  the  first 
time  in  eight  years,  a  Republican  majority  in  the 
House  of  Representatives. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


FROM  NORTH  CAPE  TO  THE  PYRAMIDS. 

In  the  spring  of  1881,  soon  after  Garfield's  inau 
guration,  Mr.  Cox,  accommpanied  by  his  wife, 
sailed  for  an  extended  trip  abroad.  The  story  of 
their  travels  he  has  told  in  two  volumes  entitled 
"Arctic  Sunbeams,  or  from  Broadway  to  the  Bos- 
phorus,  by  way  of  the  North  Cape,"  and  "Orient 
Sunbeams,  or  from  the  Porte  to  the  Pyramids,  by 
way  of  Palestine."  Together  these  titles  summar 
ize  their  eight  months'  journey.  They  "compre 
hend  a  travel  in  which  some  twelve  different  na 
tionalities  are  involved;  and  each  and  all  of  them 
in  process  of  mutation,  politically,  socially,  mor 
ally  and  religiously."  Some  of  the  scenes  in  the 
land  of  the  Turk  and  in  the  far  east  were  revisited 
after  a  lapse  of  thirty  years 

He  halted  for  a  brief  rest  in  London,  and  while 
there  attended  a  session  of  Parliament,  and  the 
funeral  of  Lord  Beaconsfield.  To  a  friend  at  home 
he  writes  of  these  events  and  the  impressions  they 
made  as  follows: 

<  -London,  Eng.,  April,  26,  1881. 
"My  Dear  Friend:  I  am  enjoined  from  doing 
any  sort  of  work — my  wife  being  the  judex — so  I 
do  not,  cannot  give  you  a  description,  as  I  hoped; 
of  the  Parliament,  whose  sessions  began  last  night 
after  the  Easter  recess.  Having  been  lucky  in  get- 


NORTH  CAPE  GROUP. 
S.  S.  Cox,  Wife  and  Guide— iE 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  115 

ting  a  front  seat,  I  had  an  opportunity  of  looking 
down  on  the  scene,  and  heard  and  saw  the  opening 
of  the  performance  in  behalf  of  the  Irish  people. 
The  morning  papers  are  full  of  the  debate,  and  you 
\vill  doubtless  have  abstracts  of  it  by  telegraph. 
When  the  House  met,  at  half-past  3  o'clock,  there 
was  but  one  of  the  Cabinet  on  the  government 
benches.  Soon  the  hall  filled,  and  some  Jive  hun 
dred  members  were  on  hand.  Mr.  Bright  was 
there,  looking  none  the  worse  for  the  twelve  years 
since  I  last  saw  him.  Mr.  Gladstone  did  not  come 
in  till  the  member  from  the  University  of  Dublin 
(Mr.  Gibson)  was  nearly  done  his  trenchant  and 
dashing  speech  for  the  landlords.  The  debate  came 
near  falling  through,  owing  to  some  weary  and  pe 
culiar  tactics.  In  fact,  a  motion  to  adjourn  it  was 
made.  This  aroused  Gladstone,  and  he  and  North- 
cote,  the  Tory  leader,  had  a  tussle  ,and  some  others 
of  less  note  grappled.  The  debate  went  on  until 
Mr.  Speaker  Bland  went  out  for  tea,  and  I  ad 
journed  myself  to  look  after  the  pictures  in  the  cor 
ridors.  There  was  not  much  interest  manifested 
until  a  young  inchoate  Duke  of  Portsmouth  (Lord 
Lymington)  took  the  floor.  He  spoke  well,  and 
with  sympathy  for  Ireland  and  her  grievances.  The 
debate  was  kept  up  till  after  midnight,  and  was 
resumed  last  night,  when  I  was  present  again,  Mrs. 
Cox  being  in  the  box  of  Mrs.  Speaker  Bland,  and 
shut  in  from  observation,  though  able  to  hear  and 
see  all  below. 

"It  is  difficult  for  gentlemen  to  obtain  access  to 
the  Commons,  and  still  more  so  for  the  ladies. 
Thanks  to  the  courtesy  of  the  Speaker,  we  had 
double  advantages.  My  seat  was  in  the  Speaker's 


116  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

gallery,  front   row,  and   facing   the  Speaker  and 
looking  down  upon  the  seats. 

"Thirty  years  ago  I  attended  Parliament,  but  it 
was  in  the  old  St.  Stephen's,  full  of  Parliamentary 
traditions.  The  present  chamber  is  in  the  New 
House.  It  will  not  hold  one-fifth  of  the  people 
who  can  assemble  in  our  lower  House.  It  is  well 
lighted  somewhat  as  our  House  is,  from  the  ceiling 
with  gaslights  above  colored  glass  squares.  There 
are  stained  windows  on  either  side,  with  diamond 
panes,  colored  red  and  green,  and  galleries  all 
around  and  above  the  chamber.  These  galleries  on 
either  side  are  two  seats  deep,  for  embassadors  and 
other  privileged  people,  and  at  either  end  seats  for 
the  reporter  over  the  Speakers'  chair,  and  for  those 
admitted  by  the  Speaker's  card.  The  seats  are 
ample.  They  are  of  green  leather,  but,  strange  to 
say,  only  one  seat  for  a  half-dozen  Peers.  The 
reporters  come  and  go  every  hour  as  the  big  bell 
in  the  tower  near  by  dings  out  the  time.  The 
Speaker's  seat  is  under  an  oaken  canopy.  In  front 
of  his  chair  are  the  seats  and  desks  of  the  clerks 
(or  clarks),  and  still  in  front  of  that  desk  is  the 
"table,"  on  which  are  some  volumes,  and  on  either 
side  two  reddish  boxes,  one  holding  the  printed 
oath,  and  the  other  the  affirmation,  and  still  fur 
ther,  at  the  end  of  this  table,  is  the  mace,  golden 
or  gilt,  as  old  as  the  Stuarts,  and  more  potential 
now  then  the  "bauble"  of  Cromwell's  day.  It  is 
the  emblem  of  the  authority  of  the  House,  and,  like 
our  own  mace,  is  in  its  place  when  the  House  is  in 
session.  It  has  a  golden  crown  at  one  end — unlike 
our  mace,  which  has  a  silver  eagle  at  the  end  of 
a  diminutive  barber  pole. 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  117 

"On  either  side  of  the  table  sit  the  prominent 
members.  To  the  right  of  the  Speaker  and  in  front 
is  the  Treasury  Bench,  on  which  sit,  or  repose  on 
the  small  of  their  backs,  and  with  hats  on,  gener 
ally,  the  members  of  the  Cabinet  when  the  House 
is  in  session.  Behind  this  bench  of  notables  are 
the  immediate  supporters  of  the  government.  Op 
posite  are  their  opponents,  led  by  Sir  Stafford 
Northcote.  There  is  an  aisle  crossing  the  house, 
and  below,  or  remote  from  the  table  (below  the 
"gangway"  as  it  is  called),  sit  the  Independent, 
Radical,  and  Irish  members.  I  have  not  time  for  a 
photograph  of  the  scene  presented  when  the  house 
is  in  session,  but  I  have  had  the  privilege  of  hear 
ing  two  grand  debates — one  on  the  Irish  bill,  and 
the  other  on  the  Bradlaugh  case. 

"In  the  latter  affair  there  was  a  scene.  The  like 
has  not  happened  in  our  Congress,  certainly  not 
since  the  war.  A  member-elect,  well  authenti 
cated,  appears  and  tenders  himself  to  take  the 
oath.  It  is  objected  that  he  is  an  atheist.  He  still 
insists  that  the  oath  will  bind.  His  objectors  con 
tend  that  his  swearing  is  profanation.  He  re 
sponds:  <I  comply  with  the  law.  The  conscience 
involved  is  i-ot  yours,  but  my  own.'  He  is  rejected 
on  a  division.  Gladstone,  Bright,  et  al.,  are  dis 
comfited.  Cheers  resound ;  so  that  you  might  hear 
them  across  the  Thames.  £>till  Bradlaugh  insists 
on  his  seat.  He  is  removed  by  a  pretense  of  force. 
He  escapes  to  the  table;  is  again  removed  by  an 
old  sergeant-at-arms  dressed  in  tights,  shoe- 
buckles,  sword  and  wig,  but  again  returns  from 
the  bar  to  the  table.  In  the  melee  the  House  ad 
journs.  He  appears  next  day  and  goes  through 


118  SAM  UEL  SULLI VAN  COX 

the  same  performance.  The  Ministry  are  to  pon 
der  the  problem.  The  result  will  be,  as  I  prophesy, 
that  a  general  law,  exempting  all  who  cannot  take 
the  oath  required  by  the  existing  law,  will  be 
passed. 

"It  is  not  for  an  American  to  laugh  at  this  pro 
ceeding.  England  was  slow  to  remove  Catholic 
and  Jewish  disabilities,  so  that  these  religionists 
should  sit  in  Parliament  without  tests.  England 
has  removed  from  her  statutes  dozens  of  oaths  re 
quired  in  custom  house  and  courts.  She  has  sub 
stituted  declarations  or  affirmations  instead;  but 
in  the  United  States  Congress  the  anomaly 
remains  that  Garfield,  Bragg,  Ewing,  and  all  who 
sustained  the  Government  during  the  rebellion 
must  take  the  "ironclad"  oath,  while  the  rebel  i& 
exempt,  and  only  swears  to  the  Constitution!  Time 
and  again  I  have,  with  others,  tried  to  remove  this 
absurdity,  but  in  vain.  The  time  will  come,  how 
ever,  when  oath-taking  will  become  such  a  prof 
anation,  by  its  levity,  familiarity  and  frequency, 
that  it  will  be  discarded  altogether.  Then  we  shall 
all  be  Quakers,  on  that  point  at  least. 

"The  debate  on  the  Irish  Land  bill  went  on  last 
night.  Many  ordinary  speakers  spoke.  The  Attor 
ney  General  of  Ireland  closed  the  debate.  Mr. 
Parnell  will  speak  next  week,  and  I  hope  to  hear 
him. 

"The  debate,  thus  far,  leaves  upon  my  mind  this 
impression,  that  while  the  government  means  to 
redress  Irish  tenant  grievances,  and  has,  by  cun 
ning  and  just  devices,  endeavored  to  ameliorate 
the  hardships  of  rents  and  the  trouble  of  insecure 
tenure,  that  no  absolute  and  lasting  cure  can  be 
realized  for  the  unhappy  isle  until  self-government 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  119 

is  accorded  to  the  Irish  people.  Call  it  separation, 
or  Home  Rule,  or  what  you  please,  the  remedies 
proposed,  even  by  the  best  friends  of  Ireland,  seem 
to  me  like  attempting  to  cure  the  pimples  upon  the 
cuticle  when  the  disorder  is  so  chronic  and  deep- 
seated  as  to  require  heroic  remedy. 

"But  one  more  allusion  to  Ireland.  Scarcely 
five  days  ago,  in  a  smooth  sea  and  on  a  sunny  day, 
we  passed  around  Cape  Clear  and  inside  of  Fastnet 
rock  and  lighthouse.  The  mountains  arose  upon 
our  vision,  and  the  rocky  shore  left  its  impression 
— a  sad  one.  Since  then  we  have  seen  the  old  town 
of  Chester,  and  the  residence  of  the  Duke  of  West 
minster  near  by — Eton  Hall — his  paddocks  and 
horses,  mares  and  colts,  including  Doncaster,  the 
chestnut  winner  of  the  Derby  and  the  splendor  of 
horses!  Since  then  we  have  re-visited  St.  Paul's, 
Westminster  Hall  and  the  Abbey,  the  great  mu 
seum,  the  Courts  of  Queen's  Bench,  Exchequer  and 
Common  Pleas,  and  traveled  over  and  under 
ground  throughout  this  vast  metropolis.  How 
much  we  have  seen  in  five  days! 

"But  had  any  one  said  to  me,  before  I  left  the 
dock  at  the  foot  of  West  Houston  street,  and  even 
after  the  faint  impression  came  of  the  rolling  and 
rocking  "cradle  of  the  deep,"  that  within  a  fort 
night  I  should  attend  the  funeral  of  Benjamin 
Disraeli,  Earl  of  Beaconsfield,  I  should  have 
thought  him  or  her  crazy !  But  it  is  accomplished. 

"A  passenger  came  aboard  our  vessel  at  Queens- 
town,  and  informed  us  upon  Thursday  of  Disraeli's 
decease  the  preceding  Thursday.  On  the  succeed 
ing  Tuesday  we  were  at  Hughenden,  a  sweet, 
beautiful  manor  of  hill  and  dale  in  Buckingham 
shire,  to  observe  the  obsequies  to  the  political  wiz- 


120  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

ard  of  the  century.  This  marvel  cf  statesman  and 
author,  this  strange  genius  of  a  proscribed  race, 
was  generously  and  nobly  entombed  in  a  rural  spot 
by  the  loving  hands  of  a  tenantry  who  seemed  to 
admire  and  respect  him.  He  was  entombed  within 
the  same  vault,  under  a  Christian  church,  where 
his  Christian  wife  had  been  buried,  and  amid  a 
throng  of  authors,  statesmen,  and  nobles,  who 
filled  the  manorial  grounds  on  that  pleasant  April 
day,  to  do  the  dead  statesman  homage. 

"One  incident  happened  to  us — a  lucky  one.  Our 
tickets  being  first-class — as  sovereigns  should  ever 
be — led  us  to  the  carriage  in  the  train  to  High  Wy- 
combe  (the  depot  for  Hughenden),  next  to  that  of 
the  princes  of  the  realm !  The  Prince,  and  heir  ap 
parent,  and  his  two  brothers,  were  the  recipients 
of  great  attention.  At  every  stop  of  the  train 
scores  of  good  people,  being  advised  by  the  wire, 
were  awaiting  the  royal  advent,  so  that  we  saw 
the  loyal  demonstrations  en  route,  made  in  honor 
of  the  three  nice  young  men — handsome  and  well 
behaved — whom  it  is  the  pleasure  of  England  to 
keep  as  the  figures  at  the  head  of  affairs,  which 
they  do  not  in  any  wise  control. 

"But  more  of  this  hereafter.  The  jaunt  was 
truly  a  relief  after  a  long  voyage.  The  blossoms 
and  hedges,  fields  and  trees,  the  greenery  and  the 
sunshine,  were  all  enchanting,  so  that  our  first 
week's  experience  on  this  island  has  been  one  of 
recreation  tempered  with  novelty  and  instruction. 

"Sincerely  jours, 

"S.  S.  Cox." 

In  a  letter  to  an  American  friend  dated  Beirut, 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  121 

Syria,  October  4,  1881,  en  route  to  Jerusalem,  Mr. 
Cox  wrote,  of  Broussa: 

"We  began  by  an  inroad  upon  Broussa.  It  is 
South  of  Constantinople  and  across  the  Sea  of  Mar 
mora.  Our  experience  there,  with  its  silks  and 
caravans,  its  fruits  and  fountains,  its  baths  for 
health  and  its  sepulchres  of  the  founders  of  the 
Ottoman  Empire — of  which  it  was  the  first  capi 
tal — would  form  a  chapter  of  romance.  One  thing 
our  trip  to  Broussa  did;  it  inducted  us  into  the 
mysteries  of  Asian  land  travel.  In  Constantinople 
we  had  met  many  peculiar  types  of  men  and  many 
muffled  forms  of  women,  as  wrell  as  of  society. 
They  were  hard  to  understand.  In  our  vexation 
we  exclaimed: 

"  "There  are  spirts,  clad  in  veils, 
Woman  by  man  is  never  seen! 

All  our  deep  conniving  fails 
To  remove  this  shadowy  screen!' 

"But  when  we  broke  into  the  unreserve  of  the 
interior  and  its  mixed  travel — by  steamer  and  en 
route — the  muffler  dropped.  In  this  trip  we  were 
associated  with  an  Irish  solicitor  from  Dublin,  and 
his  amiable  daughter.  You  may  well  believe  that 
there  was  a  richer  indigo  in  the  azure  of  the  sea, 
a  new  sparkle  to  the  lively  waters  of  Broussa,  and 
fresh  glows  to  Mount  Olympus,  at  morning  and 
evening,  as  we  talked,  and  smoked  beneath  its 
roseate  hues  and  cool  shadows,  rare  fun  when  we 
stopped  in  our  Druidical  groves  of  oaks,  half  way, 
amidst  camels  and  donkeys,  turkeys  and  chickens; 
other  wonders  in  the  capacities  and  oddities  of 
the  animals  which  carried  the  cocoons  and  other 
burdens  to  the  city  from  the  sea;  rare  attraction 


122  SAMUEL  SJJLLIVAN  COX 

in  the  strange,  brown  faces  of  the  turbaned  beg 
gars  we  met,  and  alluring  beauties  in  the  broad 
vales  made  fruitful  by  streams  from  Olympus,  and 
which  spread  beneath  us,  from  our  hotel  balcony, 
like  the  vega  of  Grenada,  as  seen  from  the  walls 
of  the  Alhambra!  Good  company  does  so  much 
in  travel.  This  was  our  first  really  hot  day,  and  its 
discomforts  need  the  mitigation  of  society.  Since 
we  began,  at  the  North  Cape  in  the  Arctics,  we 
have  had  no  such  calorific  experience.  I  began  to 
long  for  a  little  one-story  thermometer  with  noth 
ing  but  zeroes  all  ranged  in  a  row.  But  the  ranges 
of  Olympus  soon  became  refreshing — for  had  we 
not,  along  with  them,  the  pleasant  society  of  our 
witty  Irish  lawyer  and  his  fair  daughter?" 

This  will  interest  the  ladies: 

"After  my  wife  had  made  the  promenade  of  the 
silk  bazaars — with  much  cost  and  instruction — we 
called  on  a  merchant  at  his  house  to  see  some  'por 
tieres'  ordered  by  a  friend  in  Constantinople.  He, 
with  his  wife  and  mother,  received  us.  The  latter 
sat  at  her  embroidery  frame;  and  when  my  wife 
exp  ressed  a  desire  to  see  how  the  work  was  accom 
plished  so  beautifully,  she  smilingly  resumed  her 
labor.  A  fine  steel  crochet  needle  is  held  in  the 
right  hand  close  to  the  face  of  the  velvet,  while 
the  bobbin  of  silk  or  gold  thread  is  held  in  the  left 
hand  under  the  frame  on  which  the  velvet  is 
stretched.  The  needle  is  pushed  through  the  ma 
terial  and  catches  up  the  thread  underneath,  with 
great  regularity  and  rapidity,  in  the  hands  of  a 
skillful  worker.  This  is  the  way  the  Damasucs 
fabrics  are  adorned." 

In  the  same  letter  he  describes  the  view  from 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  123 

Mount  Olympus:  "Looking  off  from  the  highest  ol 
its  heights — 5,500  feet  to  the  snowy  crest — how 
small  the  donkeys  seem,  even  when  loaded!  The 
Lombardy  poplars  and  cypresses  not  as  big  as 
thistle  needles.  The  flat  dark  roofs  of  the  city  are 
leveled  with  the  green  in  which  they  are  embow 
ered;  and  the  domes  of  the  mosques — and  thej 
count  here  by  hundreds — look  like  little  bulbous 
toys.  The  old  plain  trees,  some  of  which  measure 
24  feet  round,  ever  honored  in  the  East,  as  well 
for  their  shade  as  for  some  genius  of  the  past,  look 
like  little  shrubs,  even  under  a  magnifying  glass. 
From  the  height  of  the  classic  mount,  the  sea  of 
Marmora  and  the  Euxine,  the  minarets  of  Constan 
tinople,  the  Bosphorus  and  Dardanelles,  and  the 
tall  grandeur  of  Mt.  Ida  and  its  range,  and  the 
rivers,  lakes,  green  belts  and  broad  savannas  of 
the  valleys,  appear  in  splendid  array.  It  is  a  grand 
observatory  for  a  superb  panorama!" 

Continuing  his  picture  of  Oriental  life,  Mr.  Cox 
writes:  "Our  trip  to  Broussa  was  a  relief,  after  our 
long  stay  on  the  Bosphorus.  One  drawback  to  our 
return  was  the  early  rising.  At  three  A.  M.  we  are 
in  our  carriage,  and  passing  market  people  coming 
to  the  city,  with  their  beasts  laden  with  grapes 
and  other  product  of  the  happy  valley.  Long 
lines  of  camels,  dressed  in  red  ornaments,  pass  us 
in  the  gloaming.  They  seems  monsters  of  the  pre- 
nistotic  epoch.  We  find  them  at  daylight,  under 
the  oak  trees  of  the  half-way  grove,  resting  after 
their  nightly  journey  from  the  seaside.  Did  you 
ever  notice  how  strangely  the  camel  is  built,  and 
how  oddly  he  moves?  Like  a  pompous  ante-di- 
luvian  he  treads  over  the  roughest  stones,  and  in 
the  softest  sands.  The  legs  on  one  side  move  at 


124  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

and  with  the  same  time;  and  then  with  a  gawfcv 
swing  of  the  shoulder  and  haunch  of  the  other  side 
so  as  to  keep  up  the  odd  locomotion.  He  seems  to 
be  put  together  on  springs  or  loose  hinges;  but  as 
with  the  elephant,  you  may  get  accustomed  to  his 
ungainly  gait."  Mr.  Cox  was  becoming  acquainted 
with  the  beasts  concerning  which  he  wrote  so 
learnedly  in  a  school-boy  composition! 

"As  we  start  afresh,"  the  letter  continues,  "the 
clouds  which  hung  half-way  over  Olympus  and  its 
range  floated  down  into  the  valley.  From  the 
sea  hills  we  look  back  upon  a  roseate  lake.  It  is 
no  mirage  but  an  illumination  of  the  clouds  below, 
out  of  which  the  brown  mountain  tops  rise,  like 
enchanted  isles.  At  noon,  we  reach  out  seaport, 
whence  we  sail,  in  five  hours  over  the  blue  Mar 
mora,  and  have  a  richly  colored  picture  never  to  be 
seen  too  frequently,  of  the  beauteous  mosques  and 
mirarets,  the  walls  and  towers  of  Stamboul.  What 
we  saw  and  heard  on  our  route  and  on  the  boat — 
full  of  all  the  oddest  costumes  and  people —  it 
would  take  a  volume  to  tell.  We  are  now  but  one 
day's  sail  of  Jaffa.  Thence  we  go  to  the  main  ob 
jective  point  since  we  left  the  setless  sun  in  the 
Arctic  ocean,  Jerusalem !" 

A  private  not  penned  hurriedly  at  Ephe- 
sns,  September  9,  1891,  says:  "I  send  you 
a  note  for  Samuel — as  it  were,  an  epistle 
from  Ephesus.  It  is  an  odd  place,  and 
we  are  safe  from  brigands,  having  returned  from 
our  wonderful  ride  and  walk  amidst  those  stupen 
dous  ruins.  Kuins!  magnificent  in  their  beauty, 
and  giving  at  every  turn  the  glimpses  of  the  ta 
kala  you  and  I  used  to  read  of.  Mrs.  Cox  is 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  125 

finishing  her  lunch  on  mountain  grapes;  and  she 
got  an  appetite,  for  her  mule  never  failed  to  use 
his  heels  at  every  fly — until  Mrs.  C.,  seated  astride, 
ran  canals  of  sweat.  But  she  is  safe.  This,"  he 
adds,  ais  a  picture  of  the  mule" — accompanying 
the  words  with  a  graphic  pen  and  ink  sketch  of  the 
oriental  beast  of  burden. 

They  were  near  Tarsus,  the  birthplace  of  Paul, 
Mr.  Cox  says,  when  a  few  days  later  they  were 
shocked  by  the  news,  in  a  telegram  from  the  con 
sul  at  Smyrna,  of  the  assassination  of  President 
Garfield. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


AGAIN  AT  HIS   POST. 

By  the  middle  of  November  they  were  back  in 
London,  preparing  for  their  return  homeward.  "I 
am  halted  in  London  for  a  time — say  a  day — "  he 
wrote,  "and  so  I  look  about  a  little  before  we  leave. 
What  a  look-about  it  is,  since  we  left  here  in  May! 
What  a  circle  of  felicity!  What  a  round  of  pleasant 
observation  and  experience!  How  much  have  we 
done,  written,  and  seen!"  The  first  of  December 
found  him  back  in  New  York,  ready  for  his  duties 
in  the  new  congress,  about  to  assemble.  That  body 
came  together  under  the  shadow  of  the  crime  of 
the  assassin  which  had  plunged  the  nation  in 
mourning.  President  Garfield  had  been  succeeded 
by  President  Arthur.  The  House,  again  Repub 
lican,  chose  J.  W.  Keifer  of  Ohio  as  its  speaker.  Mr. 
Cox  returned  to  his  native  land  to  find  that  still 
other  changes  in  the  political  kaleidescope  had  oc 
curred  during  his  absence.  Senators  Conkling  and 
Platt,  of  his  adopted  state,  had  thrown  up  their 
commissions,  and,  after  a  contest  that  threatened 
the  disruption  of  their  party,  had  been  succeeded 
by  others.  Those  were  troublous  times  in  Ameri 
can  politics.  They  gave  a  stimulus,  however,  to 
the  civil  service  reform  movement  throughout  the 
country,  and  that  movement,  designed  to  soften 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  127 

the  asperities  of  politics,  found  in  Mr.  Cox  a  cor 
dial  supporter.  "The  assassination  of  General  Gar- 
field,"  according  to  Mr.  Cox,  "gave  impulse  to  the 
civil  service  reform  bill.  The  evils  which  its  pro 
visions  were  intended  to  remedy  are  acknowledged 
by  most  men  of  judgment  and  experience  in  pub 
lic  affairs." 

In  the  election  of  1882  Mr.  Cox's  majority  for 
Representative  in  the  forty-eighth  congress  was 
11,317.  The  same  election  swept  Grover  Cleve 
land  and  David  B.  Hill  into  the  chairs  of  Governor 
and  Lieutenant-Governor  of  New  York  by  plurali 
ties  close  upon  200,000.  It  was  the  answer  of  the 
people  to  "Federal  interference"  in  the  politics  of 
the  state.  The  return  swing  of  the  pendulum  re 
stored  the  Democracy  to  control  of  the  House  of 
Representatives.  A  Kentuckian,  John  G.  Car 
lisle,  was  chosen  speaker  and  for  three  successive 
congresses  held  the  gavel.  Mr.  Cox,  who  had  al 
ready  succeeded  in  placing  upon  the  statute  books 
important  and  beneficent  laws  relating  to  the  life 
saving  service  and  the  letter  carriers,  In  this  con 
gress  rendered  a  hardly  less  valuable  service  in 
urging  the  passage  of  a  bill  restricting  the  impor 
tation  of  foreign  contract  labor. 

Mr.  Cox's  next  election  to  congress,  in  1884,  was 
synchronous  with  the  election  of  a  Democrat  to  the 
Presidency.  It  was  the  first  coincidence  of  the 
kind  since  his  first  election  to  congress,  twenty- 
eight  years  before.  "Thank  God,7  'he  wrote  to  an 
old  friend,  soon  after  Cleveland's  inauguration, 
"we  have  lived  to  see,  in  measureless  content,  the 
old  party  of  our  love  in  the  ascendant." 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

AS   MINISTER  TO  TURKEY. 

President  Cleveland  tendered  to  Mr.  Cox  the 
mission  to  Turkey.  It  was  accepted.  The  Sen 
ate,  on  the  nomination  reaching  that  body,  at  once 
confirmed  it,  without  the  usual  reference  to  a  com 
mittee — a  compliment  rarely  extended  any  nomi 
nee  who  is  not  or  has  not  been  a  Senator. 

Soon  afterward,  to  an  old  personal  friend,  Mr. 
Cox  wrote: 

"You  and  others  wonder  why  I  leave  a  prom 
inent  place  in  Congress  for  a  mission  to  Turkey. 
Well,  first,  many  things  tended  to  make  me  feel 
that  I  lagged  somewhat  superfluous  on  that  stage. 
My  faculties  and  qualities,  such  as  they  are,  never 
were  in  better  condition;  and  the  equipment  of  a 
quarter  of  a  century  for  the  work  of  debate,  of 
committee,  and  legislation  was  as  nearly  rounded 
on  every  theme  as  a  sturdy  and  stern  sense  of  duty 
could  make  it. 

"But  the  advent  of  new  men,  as  is  natural,  has 
pushed  me  to  the  rear,  so  that  while  abreast  if  not 
ahead  of  my  party  on  most  themes,  I  was  not  even 
able  to  command  my  old  and  favorite  foreign  com- 
miteeship,  or  my  former  Smithsonian  regentship, 
always  accorded  to  me  even  by  Republicans.  Be 
side  so  much  work  in  Congress  and  no  result — the 
rolling,  rolling,  rolling  UT>  of  the  stones  which 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  129 

rolled  down  'with  a  resulting  bound/  the  foolish 
modes  and  rules,  which  few  in  control  cared  to  cor 
rect — all  this  and  more  made  me  think  it  was  high 
time  to  seek  the  land  of  sleep  and  rest  on  the 
banks  of  the  Bosphorus.  Besides,  without  the  in 
tervention  of  any  one,  save  a  kind  word  from  a 
Missouri  and  Tennessee  member,  this  oriental 
compliment  came  to  me  directly,  gracefully,  and 
spontaneously  from  the  President  alone.  The  Sen 
ate  gave  me  confirmation  quite  complimentary 
without  referring  it;  and  these  facts,  together  with 
my  pleasant  reminiscences  of  the  happy  days  spent 
in  the  olden  capital  of  the  Greek  Empire  (upon  two 
visits  to  the  Orient),  were  predominating  reasons 
why  I  propose  to  have  a  respite  in  the  land  of  the 
Ottoman." 

It  was  not,  however,  without  some  hesitation 
that  Mr.  Cox  reached  his  decision.  "I  am  half 
inclined  at  times  to  give  it  up,"  he  wrote  from 
Washington  shortly  after  his  appointment,  "but 
for  this  'demnition  grind'  in  Congress."  And 
again :  "It  seems  pretty  hard  to  go  away  from  this 
country,  but  you  do  not  know  what  a  relief  it  is  to 
be  removed  from  this  everlasting  grind  of  Con 
gress,  that  produces  so  little."  Nearly  thirty 
years  of  this  "grind"  had  not  been  without  its 
effect — the  brain  was  weary  and  called  for  rest. 

In  the  midst  of  his  preparations  for  embarking 
for  his  new  field  of  duty,  he  was  summoned  to  the 
bedside  of  his  dying  mother:  From  his  old  home, 
Zanesville,  Ohio,  on  April  4,  the  day  following  her 
death,  he  writes:  "I  was  not  unaware  of  my  moth 
er's  illness  and  its  probable  termination.  I  was 
summoned  just  in  time  to  receive  her  conscious 


130  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

blessing,  and  it  was  a  great  comfort  to  her  and  to 
her  son.  We  bury  her  body  to-morrow.  If  I  go 
abroad  I  do  not  have  the  'lengthening  chain'  of 
filial  fear  ever  dragging  me  homeward — that  is 
one  of  the  sad  compensations."  In  a  later  letter, 
again  referring  to  his  mother's  death:  "It  is  a  hard 
blow  for  me,  as  I  was  attached  to  my  mother  be 
yond  all  thought  or  words  to  tell." 

Meanwhile  he  was  engrossed  in  the  preparation 
for  the  printers  of  his  volume,  "Three  Decades  of 
Federal  Legislation,"  an  elaborate  review  of  the 
times  of  which  he  had  been  a  conspicuous  part. 
Anxiety  to  complete  this  work  before  sailing  post 
poned  for  a  time  his  departure  for  Turkey.  Mean 
while,  too,  reluctance  to  part  with  a  Kepresenta- 
tive  who  had  served  them  so  faithfully  and  so  long 
had  led  to  a  powerful  pressure  on  the  part  of  Mr. 
Cox's  constituents  to  induce  him  to  decline  the 
mission  and  remain  in  Congress.  His  longing  for 
the  rest,  so  much  needed,  decided  him.  Under 
date  of  May  15,  in  a  letter  to  an  old  friend,  he 
wrote: 

"My  opinion  is  that  I  have  got  to  go.  Not  as  a 
galley  slave  to  his  work,  but  I  ought  to  go,  for 
there  is  nothing  worth  being  in  Congress  for  now 
except  a  scramble,  and  worry,  and  wrangle,  and 
jangle,  and  tangle.  Tell  your  friend  that  if  he 
had  only  served  twenty-five  years  in  Congress,  as 
I  have,  he  would  know  what  it  is  to  be  among  the 
heathen,  and  seek  even  a  fresh,  beautiful,  anno 
tated  edition  of  heathen.  *  *  *  It  is  a  curious, 
strange  experience  for  me  that  after  I  had  reached 
my  acme,  and  the  ladder  was  all  golden  and  beau 
tiful  like  that  of  Jacob's,  somebody  jerks  it  from 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  131 

under  me,  and  I  have  got  to  float  away  serenely 
into  an  Oriental  haven  for  Democratic  virtue." 

On  the  evening  of  the  8th  of  June  the  new  Min 
ister  to  Turkey  was  tendered  at  the  Hoffman 
House  in  New  York,  a  farewell  banquet.  Gath 
ered  around  the  table  were  the  representative 
men  of  the  metropolis,  including  ex-Mayors  Cooper 
and  Ely,  Eos  well  P.  Flower,  Congressmen  Dors- 
heimer  and  Hewitt,  Everett  P.  Wheeler,  Edward 
Kearney,  Herman  Oelrichs,  Judges  Lawrence,  In- 
graham,  Van  Brunt,  Barrett,  Gildersleeve  and 
Truax,  Joseph  J.  O'Donohue  and  others.  Abram 
S.  Hewitt,  afterwards  Mayor  of  New  York,  pre 
sided  and  made  the  opening  speech.  Also  present 
was  the  Turkish  Minister,  Tewfik  Pasha.  In  the 
course  of  his  brilliant  speech,  in  reply  to  the  toast, 
"Our  Guest,"  Mr.  Cox  said: 

"Adequately  to  acknowledge  this  climax  of  per 
sonal  honor,  one  should  have  thoughts  impearled 
upon  vestments  of  Oriental  light  and  imagery 
sweeter  than  the  roses  of  Cashmere.  The  charm, 
the  mis-en-scene,  and  the  company  give  to  this 
night's  entertainment  something  of  that  bewilder 
ing  enchantment  which  one  might  enjoy  for  a 
thousand  and  one  nights  and  never  surfeit.  Could 
I  have  the  melody  of  the  Persian  nightingale  who 
sang  his  love  to  the  rose,  in  the  tender  idyls  of 
Haflz;  could  I  draw  from  the  depths  of  the  Brah- 
minical  philosophy,  whose  generalizations  are  the 
fountain  of  our  Emersonian  transcendentalism; 
could  I  evoke  from  nature  her  hidden  poetry  and 
primal  meaning,  I  could  perhaps  answer  for  this 
banquet  of  affectionate  regard  given  to  one  whose 
life  has  been  a  life  of  labor,  not  untinged  with 
some  romance. 


132  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

"Coleridge  has  said  that,  in  pursuing  his  muse, 
he  had  his  own  exceeding  great  reward.  It  is  not 
always  so  in  pursuing  politics.  But  to  me,  politics 
as  I  have  endeavored  to  follow  them  in  their  fickle 
ness,  have  been  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  a  great 
source  of  enjoyment  and  a  great  incentive  to  prac 
tical  exertion. 

"Upon  an  occasion  like  this,  surely  I  may  be  al 
lowed  to  improve  it  by  referring  to  some  points — 
even  points  of  the  compass — which  are  somewhat 
personal.  I  am  of  the  west — of  Ohio — not  the 
greater,  but  still  the  great  west.  For  some  rea 
sons,  mostly  domestic,  a  reflux  wave  brought  me 
to  the  east.  After  two  generations  from  some  tall 
tower  or  Trinity  steeple,  I  can  overlook  the  ances 
tral  congressional  district  along  the  shores  of  east 
Jersey.  Perhaps  this  will  account  for  my  tender 
relations  to  the  life-saving  service,  and  my  inher 
ited  tendencies  toward  congressional  pursuits. 

"Although  from  the  west,  and  having  a  pseudo 
nym  which  indicates  only  a  descending  orb,  I  am 
here  to-night  as  the  recipient  of  an  oriental  ova 
tion,  whose  oriental  magnificence  is  equaled  only 

by  its  oriental  significance. 

***** 

"There  is  something  still  more  attractive  than 
diplomacy  or  commerce  in  the  Orient.  It  is  the 
land  of  a  deep  blue  sky  whose  concave  is  set  thick 
with  stars.  The  eastern  sky,  with  its  marvelous 
purity  and  beauty,  early  developed  the  spirtuali- 
ties  of  human  nature.  If  it  also  called  out  sensu 
alism  there  was  a  compensation  beyond  all  ex 
pression,  in  the  purity  of  its  thought  and  in  the 
elevation  and  unity  of  its  worship.  When  the 


.SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  133 

Koran  prohibited  men  from  drinking  wine,  but 
gave  full  privileges  of  water  and  coffee,  the  Pay- 
mm  voluptuary  was  not  altogether  enshrined 
among  the  beatitudes  of  the  demi-gods.  Epicurus 
may  now  and  then  sit  with  his  Chibouk  cross-leg 
ged  on  the  banks  of  the  Bosphorus  as  dreamful  as 
any  German  metaphysician.  But  beyond  and 
above  all,  from  the  land  of  India,  Arabia,  Egypt, 
and  even  from  the  desert  places,  came  the  religions 
which  have  made  mankind  gaze  hopefully  and 
earnestly  into  the  unseen  world.  Whether  He 
brew,  Christian,  Brahmin,  Mohammedan,  the  wor 
shipper  bowed  only  to  the  one  Invisible  Supreme 
being.  Faith  in  each  lifted  man  by  a  higher  code 
of  ethics  into  a  higher  plane  of  thought.  The  relig 
ions  wMch  drew  from  the  Holy  of  Holies  and  from 
the  infinite  deeps  which  environ  the  eastern  sky 
had  and  have  an  inspiration  that  gives  solace  to 
the  suffering  and  dying  of  every  land,  and  enlight 
ens  our  last  moments  with  the  hope  that  takes 
from  the  grave  its  sting  and  from  death  its  vic 
tory. 

"It  is  a  difficult  thing  to  give  up  old  associations 
and  to  form  new  habitudes.  Since  I  have  re 
signed  my  place  at  the  capitol  I  have  wandered 
about  through  its  corridors  and  halls  like  the 
ghost  of  my  departed  self.  Almost  every  image 
seemed  to  wave  "adieu."  Even  the  old  hall  in 
which  I  first  served  to  the  new  chamber  wherein 
I  made  the  first  speech,  echoed  with  personal 
thoughts  and  pleasant  associations.  But  there 
must  be  an  end  of  all  occupations,  and,  for  a 
wholesome,  thorough  living,  there  must  be  more 
or  less  of  change.  We  must  sometimes  fold  our 


134  SAM  UEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

tents  like  the  Arabs.  No  longer  for  me  the 
speaker's  gavel,  with  its  "rap,"  "rap,"  "rap,"  no 
longer  the  fierce  debate  and  the  loud  applause 
"which  made  ambition  virtue."  No  longer  the 
five  minutes  debate  upon  a  sixpenny  appropria 
tion.  No  longer  the  previous  question,  that  dyna 
mite  which  destroys  so  much  of  parliamentary 
power.  "Othello's  occupation's  gone" — gone  to 
the  Hellespont." 

Accompanied  by  his  wife,  he  sailed,  in  June,  on 
the  Gallia,  but  they  were  several  days 
delayed  in  their  voyage  by  a  misad 
venture — their  ship  having  broken  her 
shaft  in  mid-ocean.  The  first  of  August 
found  him  at  his  post,  in  the  Turkish  capital.  Un 
der  date  Constantinople,  August  9,  1885,  he  wrote 
to  a  friend  he  had  left  behind :  "For  fear  that  yon 
are  anxious  about  us — know  that  we  are,  and  that 
we  are  here!  at  our  post.  In  vain  the  Gallia  broke 
her  shaft — it  fell  hurtless  and  we  moved  on  to  our 
goal.  Ten  days  ago  we  saluted  the  Bosphorus,  and 
were  met  by  our  flag  and  our  friends.  It  was  a  re 
newal  of  old  times;  and  yet  it  is  a  sort  of  exile. 
But  still  what  a  rest  is  here!  The  laps  of  the  wat 
ers  almost  at  the  foundation  of  our  house  and 
home  at  Therapia — an  hour  above  the  city — makes 
music  for  us,  and  its  breezes  blow  health  from  Cau 
casus.  I  am  already  improving.  My  health  was 
below  par;  now  it  is,  say,  65  per  cent,  above,  and 
going  up.  Is  this  caused  by  freedom  in  Turkey — 
from  all  political  worry?" 

"Twice  before  my  appointment  as  Envoy  to  Tur 
key,"  he  wrote,  in  introducing  the  story  of  his  offi 
cial  life  at  the  Turkish  capital,  "I  had  been  to  Con 
stantinople.  On  the  first  occasion  in  1851,  in  life's 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  1 35 

morning,  we  sailed  thither  in  a  French  steamer  up 
the  Mediterranean.  On  the  second  occasion, 
thirty  years  afterward,  we  traveled  to  Turkey 
from  the  Land  of  the  Midnight  Sun.  Unlike  our 
first  voyage,  the  difficulty  in  reaching  Constanti 
nople  in  1885  was  at  the  start.  There  were  strong 
bonds  which  attached  us  to  our  home  and  city,  and 
myself  to  long-accustomed  Congressional  life.  It 
was  as  difficult  to  leave  the  harbor  as  it  was  to  ob 
tain  the  consent  of  constituents.  Then,  in  mid- 
ocean,  among  the  icebergs  of  Newfoundland,  the 
steamer  of  the  Cunard  Line — the  Gallia — broke 
her  shaft  as  if  reluctant  to  bear  us  away.  Our 
ocean  voyage  was  nearly  a  score  of  days  when  it 
should  have  been  but  half  of  that  time.  Between 
Washington  and  Constantinople  forty  days  are 
allowed  the  Minister.  Every  one  of  these  days 
was  occupied,  partly  by  the  misadventure  to  the 
Gallia,  and  partly  by  reason  of  the  earthly  rest  at 
London,  Paris,  Munich,  Vienna  and  Buda-Pesth." 
At  last  they  found  themselves  on  the  wharf  of  the 
Turkish  capital. 

As  they  landed  they  were  met  by  the  Sultan's 
Foreign  Minister,  Assim  Pasha,  and  bidden  a  cor 
dial  welcome.  The  residence  assigned  to  the  United 
States  minister  was  beautifully  situated  at  Ther- 
apia,  on  the  banks  of  the  Bosp'horus,  a 
few  miles  above  Constantinople.  "The  home 
in  which  we  are  esconced  (at  Ther- 
apia)  for  the  summer,"  he  wrote,  "has 
one  window  looking  out  upon  terraces  up 
ward  three  hundred  feet.  This  garden  is  leafy  and 
green  in  the  moist  wrarmth  from  the  waves  below. 
Its  roses,  magnolias,  heliotropes,  jessamine,  Vir- 


136  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

ginia  and  other  creepers  make  an  exquisite  pic 
ture.  Out  of  another  window  there  is  a  prospect 
of  the  hills  of  Buyukdere — one  of  the  beautiful  vil 
lages  of  the  upper  Bosphorus,  where  my  col 
leagues  of  many  Legations  reside.  The  clappo- 
tage  of  the  weaves  against  the  stone  quay  almost 
under  our  window  lulls  one  into  a  poetic  swoon." 
The  contrast  between  this  and  the  life  in  Congress, 
with  all  its  whirl  of  excitement  and  worry,  was 
doubtless  most  refreshing  to  a  man  who  had  had 
almost  three  decades  of  the  latter. 

The  sad  news  of  the  death  of  Gen.  Grant  was 
nearly  a  month  traveling  to  Constantinople.  It 
was  made  the  occasion  of  a  meeting  of  the  Ameri 
can  colony  to  do  honor  to  the  hero's  memory.  "As 
General  Grant,"  wrote  Mr.  Cox,  in  his  account 
thereof,  "was  from  my  native  state  of  Ohio — the 
home  of  the  Shermans,  Sheridans,  McPhersons 
and  McCooks  of  our  conflict — it  was  my  special 
pride  to  be  known  in  Congress  as  his  devoted 
friend,  perhaps  next  in  that  body  to  Mr.  Washburn 
of  Illinois.  It  was  my  privilege,  just  before  the 
close  of  the  war,  when  Grant's  army  was  before 
Petersburg  and  Richmond,  to  be  the  GeneraPs 
guest;  and  just  before  leaving  Congress  I  had  the 
honor  to  introduce  the  first  bill  to  reinstate  him  in 
the  army.  This  relation  gave  me  the  privilege  to 
speak  with  emphasis  of  the  eventful  life  which  had 
just  closed,  and  in  which  cloud  and  sunshine  so 
strangely  alternated."  No  sublimer  eulogy  of  the 
immortal  Grant  came  from  any  lips  than  that 
which  Mr.  Cox  gave  to  the  American  colony  on  the 
far  off  shores  of  the  Bosphorus. 

In  a  letter  to  an  American  friend  under  date 
Constantinople,  September  10,  1885,  Mr.  Cox  thus 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  137 

pleasantly  refers  to  his  new  book  and  his  life  at 
Therapia: 

"The  book  ('Three  Decades')  is  out  (1  Sept.).  It 
pleases  me.  It  was  close,  hard,  overtasking  work. 
I  wonder  how  I  survived  it;  and  yet  I  look  now 
calmly  in  the  mid-September  at  the  white  pinions 
of  the  bluest  blue  sea,  ever  God-closed,  the  Eux- 
ine,  as  it  rolls  its  murmurs  to  our  very  door  or 
quai,  under  tunical  breezes  that  have  made  rose 
ate  our  Caucasian  ancestral  cheek!  For  the  winds 
blow  over  the  blue  from  the  Caucasian  peaks.  Yet 
there  is  quarantine  here — four  days — why?  Be 
cause  poor  Spain  suffers — and  therefore  the 
mouth  of  the  Black  Sea  is  shut  by  a  previous 
question  raised  in  Hidalgo-land." 

Musing,  in  the  same  letter,  on  a  situation  in 
home  politics,  it  occurs  to  him  that  "after  a  man 
passes  twenty-five  years  in  Congress  unscathed; 
and  goes  over  the  ocean  on  a  broken  shaft  in  sev 
enteen  days;  and  meets  the  Sultan  with  a  Sublime 
Porte;  and  can  sail  in  the  United  States  yacht 
launch  to  the  Cyaraean  rocks,  and  go  through  like 
one  Jason  of  the  Argo;  and  never  lose  a  <fo'  top 
sail/  or  bilge  a  marlingspike — he  is  fit  to  give 
advice  discreetly  to  a  new  Administration.  But," 
he  asks,"  will  they  take  it?"  The  diplomat's  divorce 
from  American  politics  was  not  yet  absolute.  The 
dolce  far  niente  influence  of  Eastern  life  had  not 
yet  its  perfect  work.  "Here  I  am,"  he  writes  a 
few  days  later,  "from  the  arena  of  politics  ever  so 
aloof!  It  is  a  sensation."  In  the  following  he 
describes  to  an  American  friend  a  street  spectacle 
on  the  occasion  of  the  Sultan's  appearance  in  pub 
lic: 


138  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

"Constantinople,  Sept,  21,  '85. 

I  went  down  to  see  the  Sultan  yesterday  by  spe 
cial  invitation  to  all  the  Ministers.  He  "received" 
or  would,  at  the  opening  of  "Bairum,"  a  festal 
occasion  of  five  days.  Business  suspended  and 
things  Sabbath-like  among  the  pious  people.  The 
truth  is,  the  Turks  are  a  religious  people,  more  so 
than  the  Armenians  or  Greeks  or  —us!  Well, 
half  way  down  (got  up  at  5  A.  M.)  met  a  despatch 
boat  with  letter  from  Munio  Pasha.  (You  know 
Munio?  No?  Why,  he's  head  chamberlain!)  to 
say  that  the  business  of  State  so  pressing  that 
reception  postponed.  There  is  a  threatened  war 
between  Bulgaria  and  Turkey,  and  the  palace  was 
in  a  pother.  Nevertheless,  Mrs.  Cox  being  in  full 
dress,  and  myself  also,  concluded  to  land  and  see 
the  Sultan  come  out  of  the  mosque  and  palace  en 
route  to  his  kiosk  at  Yildiz.  Directly,  say  an 
hour,  while  we  waited  at  a  guard  house,  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  Beys,  Agas,  Effendis  and 
Pachas  came  along,  all  gilt,  in  their  private  car 
riages;  then  came  soldiers  and  soldiers;  at  last  a 
four-horse  gilded  coach,  with  two  pachas  in  front 
— Osman  and  another  I  couldn't  recognize — and 
the  Sultan  behind  in  the  back  seat.  Then  along 
pell-mell,  higglety-pigglety,  on  horseback,  the 
gayest  circus  riders  you  ever  saw,  full  jump, 
mostly  grey  barbs  and  splendid  riders.  Some  of 
the  head  Pachas  colored  as  ebony.  Well,  we  saw 
it  all,  and  came  home  happy  to  listen  to  the  music 
of  the  murmurous  Bos!" 

His  partiality  for  the  solar  orb  manifested  itself 
on  every  occasion.  His  sobriquet  "Sunset"  was 
conferred  upon  him,  as  has  been  shown,  because 


MEHEMET-COX'S  FAITHFUL  KAVASS  (GUARD), 
While  U/S.  Minister  in  Turkey. 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  139 

of  his  enthusiastic  description  of  a  sunset,  while 
an  Ohio  editor,  and  because  the  initials  of  his 
name  corresponded  to  it.  The  titles  chosen  for  his 
books  of  travel,  "Winter  Sunbeams/'  "Arctic 
"Sunbeams,"  "Orient  Sunbeams,"  as  well  as  the 
genial  glow  of  his  own  nature,  further  illustrated 
this  characteristic.  On  the  shores  of  the  Bos- 
phorus  he  found  sweet  content.  For,  in  a  letter 
dated  October  7,  he  exclaims:  "I  have  had  sun 
beams,  and  beams  and  beams,  until  heaven  is  dark 
with  glory  here.  This  is  the  land  of  light  and 
romance." 

The  new  Minister's  first  formal  reception  by  his 
Sultanic  Majesty  was  set  down  for  a  certain  day 
by  the  First  Chamberlain,  and  then  postponed. 
The  reasons  for  the  postponement  are  curious  and 
interesting.  The  United  States  Minister  was  re 
quired  to  furnish  the  Turkish  Minister  of  Foreign 
Affairs  with  a  copy,  in  both  French  and  English, 
of  the  speech  he  was  to  make  to  the  Sultan  on  the 
occasion  of  his  presentation  to  that  august  per 
sonage.  "I  had  more  difficulty,"  confessed  Mr. 
Cox,  "about  the  French  than  the  English  portion." 
It  was  the  French  translation  that  created  the 
mare's  nest.  One  sentence  in  our  tongue  read  in 
part:  "The  United  States  would  not,  if  they  could, 
depart  from  the  invariable  policy  which  forbids 
all  entanglements  in  foreign  affairs."  Although 
the  speech  caused  our  Minister,  as  he  confesses, 
"barrels  of  perspiration,"  yet  one  word  in  the 
translation  became  almost  a  casus  belli.  It  was 
the  word  "entanglements."  Mr.  Cox's  amusing 
account  follows: 

"I  had  in  my  mind  Washington's  Farewell  Ad 
dress  as  to  all  foreign  entangling  alliances.  There 


140  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

is  no  synonym  in  French  except  the  word  which, 
after  much  research,  I  had  selected.  When  my 
French  speech  was  scanned  by  the  leading  linguist 
in  the  Foreign  Office  in  Stamboul,  assisted  by  a 
cohort  of  polyglots,  they  lit  upon  the  word  <en- 
chevetrement.'  What  could  it  mean?  Was  it  an 
American  torpedo,  or  polysyllabic  dynamite  for 
the  overthrow  of  the  dynasty?  Whatever  might 
have  been  their  opinion  of  the  explosive  and  peril 
ous  composition,  I  was  satisfied,  from  intimations, 
that  the  delay  of  my  reception  for  some  days  was 
occasioned  by  the  confusion  incident  to  this  terri 
ble  six-footed  word.  The  speech  was  finally  ac 
cepted  in  the  sense  in  which  it  was  intended,  and 
thenceforth  the  respective  countries  never  ceased 
to  dwell  together  in  diplomatic  unity." 

The  eagerly  awaited  reception  by  this  Oriental 
monarch,  Abdul  Hamid  II.,  came  at  last,  and  was 
on  a  scale  of  splendor  and  ceremony  to  which  oc 
cidental  nations  are  entire  strangers.  "As  we 
are  ushered  into  the  presence,"  says  Mr.  Cox  in 
describing  the  scene,  "we  make  three  bows — one 
at  the  door  on  entering,  the  second  half  way,  and 
the  last  when  we  stop  a  few  feet  from  his  person. 
We  do  not  bow  as  low  as  the  Turkish  Ministers, 
but  we  do  our  best!"He  had  seen  the  Sultan  twice 
before — first  in  1851,  when  His  Majesty  was  a  boy 
of  eleven,  in  company  with  his  father;  next  in 
1881,  when  Mr.  Cox  was  presented  to  His  Majesty 
by  Oeneral  Wallace,  then  our  Minister  to  Turkey. 
"I  confess,"  he  writes,  "before  I  had  an  idea  of 
being  here  in  any  but  a  tourist's  capacity,  to  an 
enthusiasm  for  this  monarch.  He  is  a  king  every 
inch,  and  without  any  dramatic  ostentation.  He 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  141 

deserves  great  regard  for  his  rare  ability.  He  is 
his  own  adviser.  Amid  his  troubles  and  cares, 
and  with  the  populations  of  the  divers  religions 
and  races,  which  he  must  reconcile  to  rule,  he  is 
not  unworthy  of  the  fame  of  Abdul  Medjid,  whose 
memory  is  to  me  a  part  of  my  earliest  association 
with  the  city  of  Constantinople." 

The  coming  to  Constantinople  of  a  new  Ameri 
can  Minister  to  a  neighboring  kingdom,  en  route 
to  his  post,  during  the  November  following  is  thus 
duly  chronicled:  "Our  Minister  to  Greece  has  just 
arrived,  and  I  owe  him  a  devoir.  He  is  ahead  of 
me,  at  first  sight,  in  the  diplomatic  game.  He  is 
Minister  to  Roumania,  Servia,  and  Greece.  He 
holds  three  kings  and  three  queens.  That  is  his 
pot — or  flush,  or  what  is  it?  But  I  hold  one  king 
(Abdul  Hamid  II.)  and  all  the  rest  of  the  pack 
queens!" 

In  a  New  Year's  greeting  "from  the  Salt  Seas 
of  Marmora  and  Euxine  to  the  salt — the  'old  salts' 
—of  Onondaga,"  he  confesses  that  he  "felt  a  little 
funny  when  Congress  met  and  I  not  there.  But," 
he  added,  "it  is  a  good  time  here  to  observe  impar 
tially  the  doings  and  sayings."  Evidently  the 
"sunbeams"  were  not  oppressive  on  New  Year's, 
for  he  writes:  "The  winter  here  is  damp  bad- 
worse  than  Washington.  Summers  superb.  I 
have  been  indoors  for  a  week  with  rheumatix;  but 
about  well.  Am  writing  despatches  and  reading 
up.  Such  a  reader  you  never  saw." 

With  improved  weather  the  barometer  of  the 
American  Minister's  humor  went  up  also,  as  is 
evident  from  the  following  sunburst: 

"Constantinople,  Jan'y  18,  '86. 
"Mrs.  Cox  is  enchanted  with  the  magic  of  this 


142  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

realm.  I  guess  and  persuade  myself  I  am  the 
magic!!  When  the  magic  goes  to  N.  Y.,  expect  the 
'Excellenzia' — as  they  call  her — also.  It  nearly 
kills  me  to  be  'called'  at  all;  but  little  Samuel  was! 
But  now  here  all  call  me — 'Excellency/  'Son' 
'Excellency!'  etc.,  and  it  is  too  much!!  Overdose! 
It  hurts  me  in'nerds.  However,  it  is  polite;  and  I 
reciprocate,  and  believe  all  to  be  excellent,  prima 
facie,  which  is  a  violent  presumption.  The 
weather  is  getting  better,  and  so  am  I.  It  was 
horrible  and  wet;  but  Egypt  is  not  quite  such  a 
cynosure,  or  Greece,  as  it  was  for  delight  and 
refuge.  *  *  *  The  papers  say  I  play  the  flute. 
Laws!  How  the  journals  lie!" 

That  Minister  Cox  had  fully  recovered  from  his 
"rheumatix"  before  January  had  gone  by,  is  evi 
dent  from  the  following  private  note  in  which, 
among  other  things,  he  describes  his  experience  in 
teaching  a  Turk  what  he  knew  about  farming: 

"U.  S.  Legation, 
"Constantinople,  Jan.  20,  '86. 
"I  am  here  at  work  and  again  on  my  pedal  ex 
tremities,  using  them  more  than  the  other  extrem 
ity.  The  weather  has  come  like  ethereal  mildness, 
gentle  spring.  Now  the  festive  peasant,  etc.,  etc. 
which  reminds  me  of  my  magnificent  agricultural 
experiment  the  other  day.  Mrs.  Cox  drove  me  out 
— I  mean  a  coachman  did — upon  the  grand  hills 
and  unto  the  superb  valleys  that  suburb  this  city. 
There  are,  be  it  known,  fine  farms,  and  gardens 
plenty  upon  these  hills.  From  them  one  may  over 
look  Asia,  and  almost  Africa.  Well,  we  saw  a 
man,  a  full  breasted,  well  turbaned  Turk,  with  a 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  3 43 

goad,  and  a  sash  of  endless  length,  driving  two  no 
ble  oxen,  descendants  of  the  ox  which  forded  here 
with  Europa  many  dim  centuries  ago,  worthy  to  be 
sacrificed  to  Jove,  who  had  retired  behind  Olym 
pus,  TO  miles  away — when  I  took  the  plough  han 
dle!  There  was  only  one  handle.  Ceres  smiled 
sere-ously!  I  "hawed"  and  <gee?d"  the  oxen,  but 
they  did  not  understand  the  lingo  of  Ohio  cat 
tle.  Box  and  Cox  is  an  old  farce;  but  Ox  and  Cox 
— well,  I  brought  out  of  that  field  more  mud  than 
Cincinnatus  did  when  he  left  the  only  "share"  he 
took  stock  in,  and  made  Eome  howl  for  him  as  a 
patriot  and  a  "Cult."  My  shoe  black  charged  me 
five  piasters  extra  for  the  soil  I  did  not  turn  up 
except  on  my  boots!  And  this  from  the  farmer's 
friend,  just  from  the  Sciatic  Court;  and  in  view  of 
an  Asciatic  who  regarded  my  effort  with  earthly 
gravity." 

Whether  the  American  minister  made  due  re 
port  to  the  State  Department  at  Washington  of 
his  progress  in  inculcating  the  principles  of  agri 
culture,  a  la  Americaine,  in  the  Turkish  brain,  he 
has  not  informed  us! 

Among  the  diversions  of  the  diplomat  during 
the  winter  of  1886  was  a  revisit  of  Greece  and 
Egypt.  At  Athens  he  heard  of  the  deaths  of  two 
eminent  Americans  whom  he  had  supported  for 
the  Presidency,  Horatio  Seymour  and  General 
Hancock.  "Yes,"  he  wrote,  "our  great  and  good 
leaders  are  going  to  their  long  home.  I  am  about 
the  only  one  of  the  ante-bellum  men  of  public  life 
left."  By  April  first  the  tourists  were  back  in 
Constantinople.  A  letter  of  that  date  thus  refers 
to  the  interesting  journey: 

"We  have  been  in  Egypt.     Need  I  say  our  trip 


144  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX. 

up  the  Nile  had  all  the  charm  of  novelty,  as  well 
as  of  unusual  social  and  festive  displays,  occa 
sioned  by  the  four  nationalities  officially  repre 
sented  on  our  boat — three  of  Europe,  Kussia,  Ger 
many,  and  Sweden,  and  the  one  from  America. 
The  four  flags  floated  from  our  little  steamer,  and 
naturally  the  Arabic  race  were  curious  as  to  the 
occasion  of  so  much  display.  But  the  old  temples 
and  ruins  are  all  that  has  ever  been  claimed  for 
them;  massive  and  unique  beyond  idea." 

The  American  Minister  and  his  wife  shortly 
after  their  return  to  Constantinople  were 
entertained  at  a  State  dinner  by  the  Sultan.  In 
a  private  letter  penned  the  next  day,  he  thus  re 
ferred  to  the  event:  "I  have  just  gone  through  a 
royal  scene!  The  long-promised  dinner  from  the 
Sultan  came  off  last  night,  29th  May.  Mrs.  Cox 
was  toiletted  until  she  beat  me  to  death  in  my 
little  'swallow' — but  when  it  came  to  the  swallow 
of  the  menu  I  was  there!  I  had  been  reading  up 
in  Ottoman  history,  and  knew  the  29th  May  was  a 
'Big  Day'  for  Constantinople  and  the  Ottoman; 
for  Mahomet  II.  came  in  and  took  things  from 
Constantine  Palaeogus  on  that  day,  433  years 
before!  Observe  the  sequel.  Well,  we  went  up  to 
the  palace  of  Yildiz  and  through  the  labyrinth  of 
rare  gardens  and  pleasure  houses  until  we  were 
received  by  His  Majesty.  But  I  must  send  you  a 
paper  for  the  particulars."  An  interesting  inci 
dent  at  the  conclusion  of  the  royal  dinner  was  the 
decoration  of  Mrs.  Cox  with  the  Grand  Cordon  of 
the  Benevolences,  the  Chefekat.  The  ceremony  is 
thus  described  by  Mr.  Cox:  "After  being  seated  the 
dragoman  surprises  my  wife  and  the  company. 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  145 

He  approaches  her  with  a  box.  'I  have  something 
to  show  you,  Madam,'  he  says.  'Yes/  she  responds. 
'It  is  lovely  outside.  What  is  it?'  He  opens  it, 
remarking,  'Shall  I  put  it  on  you?'  'What  do  you 
mean?'  she  inquires.  'I  have  the  pleasure  of  dec 
orating  you,  at  the  Sultan's  wish,  with  the  Grand 
Order  of  the  Chefekat.'  Thereupon  he  throws  the 
cordon  over  her  head,  and,  with  the  aid  of  the  Ger 
man  Ambassadress,  who  is  familiar  with  the 
decoration,  it  is  decorously  arranged.  It  is  a  sur 
prise  as  well  as  an  honor,  coming  as  it  does  almost 
within  one  year  of  our  service  with  the  American 
Legation.  It  is  a  star  in  brown,  gold  and  green 
enamel,  with  diamond  brilliants.  It  has  five 
points  and  twenty-six  diamonds  on  each  point. 
Surely  no  woman  of  good  training  would  refuse 
such  a  gift!  It  is  fastened  upon  the  front  of  the 
corsage,  and,  with  the  cordon,  it  serves  as  an  orna 
ment  to  the  dress.  The  Pashas,  the  aides  and  the 
officers  make  their  felicitations  upon  the  happy 
event.  My  wife  told  me  confidentially  afterward 
that  she  thought  for  a  brief,  ineffable  moment  that 
she  was  a  bride  again.  This  decoration  origin 
ated  with  the  present  Sultan,  or  his  father,  in 
order  to  honor  Lady  Layard  for  her  services  in  the 
hospitals  during  the  Crimean  War.  It  is  called 
the  Order  of  Good  Works."  Mr.  Cox  afterward 
confidentially  informed  the  writer  that  the  sight 
of  this  Chefekat  caused  an  almost  irresistible 
feline  impulse  to  meouwing! 

The  Sultan's  clever  way  of  dismissing  his 
guests  is  worth  telling  here:  "The  Sultan  now 
arises.  He  will  detain  us  no  longer.  It  is  eti 
quette  at  the  palace  to  remain  until  the  Sultan 


146  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

gives  the  signal  to  leave.  This  he  generally  does 
by  a  glance  at  his  watch,  saying:  <I  fear  you  will 
be  late;'  or,  'Perhaps  I  am  detaining  you.'  He 
shakes  hands  with  the  ladies  first,  and  then  the 
gentlemen,  with  their  best  grace,  back  out.  The 
bouquets  are  distributed  to  the  ladies."  Appar 
ently  there  was  one  part  of  the  palace  our  Ameri 
can  Minister  was  not  allowed  to  inspect.  "As  we 
retire,  after  many  kindly  greetings,"  he  writes, 
"we  look  in  vain  for  lattice  and  curtain  to  indicate 
the  harem.  Every  window  opens  into  a  beautiful 
garden,  and  every  garden  is  filled  with  flowers 
and  sparkling  fountains.  It  is  a  fairy  scene;  but 
no  houri." 

The  summer  of  1886  was  spent  among  the  Isles 
of  the  Princes,  mainly  on  the  Isle  of  Prinkipo,  in 
the  Propontis.  "There  were  nine  muses.  The 
Princes  Isles  are  the  same  in  number  as  those  sis 
ters.  Their  beauty  and  allurements  are  as  varied 
as  the  hues  of  the  waters  around  them."  From 
Prinkipo,  soon  after  taking  up  his  summer  resi 
dence  there,  he  writes:  "Such  is  life  here  that  I 
am  getting  better,  on  a  lovely  isle,  with  only  5,000 
Greeks  and  lots  of  good  breeze  and  piney  woods." 
Here,  at  last,  he  seems  to  have  realized  that  dream 
of  complete  rest  for  which  he  had  left  his  country. 
One  of  his  letters  breezily  describes  a  visit  to  a 
neighboring  island:  "Tempus — early  in  the  morn 
ing,  by  the  sunrise.  Strange  noises  in  the  isle. 
Roosters  and  jackasses.  Both  make  music  in  har- 
ir.ony  with  various  venders  of  verdant  vegetables! 
Crowd  of  hamals,  gamins,  fishermen,  etc.,  on  the 
scala  (quai),  looking  at  the  mystery  of  the  screw- 
going  vessel.  These  were  the  circumadjacent  cir 
cumstances  of  our  condition  as  we  moved  out  of 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  147 

our  harbor  of  Prinkipo  this  morning  to  visit  our 
neighbor  isle  of  Halki  (Grec.  Chalki,  or  copper). 
This  is  the  isle  the  copper  came  from  that  made 
the  Colossus  of  Rhodes.  Here,  too,  are  the  theo 
logical  seminaries  of  the  Orthodox  Greek  Church, 
as  old  as  Justinian,  too;  and  some  of  their  old 
churches  and  monasteries  look  it.  To  this  isle, 
whose  profile  is  that  of  a  Spanish  saddle,  and 
whose  tops  are  crowned  with  colleges,  and  whose 
valley  and  coast  line  is  a  pretty  Greek  town, — we 
direct  our  prow,  Ulysses  like,  toward  the  Isles  of 
Syrens — for  the  isle  is  full  of  beauteous  females, 
who  almost  rival  those  of  Prinkipo!  These  Isles 
of  the  Blest,  nine  of  them,  lie  (all  but  two)  close 
to  each  other.  We  have  the  finest  in  all  in  the 
neat  lay  of  the  land — rock  and  mountain  and  inter 
vale." 

At  Prinkipo  the  Minister  was  not  distant  from 
the  sphere  of  active  diplomacy,  which,  he  tells  us, 
"had  no  surcease  during  the  summer  and  fall." 
In  the  story  of  his  enchanted  life  among  the  clas 
sic  scenes  of  the  Princess  Isles,  he  writes  in  clos 
ing: 

"The  story  of  our  summer  is  told.  The  wreaths 
begin  to  wither  on  the  tomb.  A  thousand 
thoughts  and  studies  hang  over  them.  But  these 
are  not  dead  garlands.  The  angels  of  memory 
will  resume  their  places  at  the  gate  of  this  para 
dise.  The  flaming  sword  drives  us  into  the  old 
and  busy  world,  under  the  glaring  sun  and  the 
uncloistered  heat  and  dust  of  our  earnest  and 
active  American  life;  but  amidst  all  the  turmoil 
and  worry  of  that  life,  we  shall  turn  to  the  'Pleas 
ures  of  Prinkipo.' " 

"In  the  shadow  of  thy  pines,  by  the  shores  of  thy 

sea, 
On  the  hills  of  thy  beauty,  our  heart  is  with  thee." 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

RETURNS   TO   THE   UNITED   STATES   AND   CONGRESS. 

As  the  summer  wore  away,  with  the  accumula 
tion  of  a  new  store  of  health,  came  the  desire  to 
be  once  more  amid  the  activities  of  American 
politics.  "Circumstances,"  to  adopt  his  own 
words,  "partly  domestic  and  partly  political,"  led 
him  to  resign  his  office  as  Minister  and  to  return 
home  to  resume  his  former  position  as  a  Member 
of  Congress  from  the  city  of  New  York. 

As  to  his  reason  for  the  change,  we  have  his  own 
statement:  "It  was  not  because  of  any  dissatisfac 
tion  with  the  service,  nor  from  any  derogative 
treatment  by  the  officers  of  the  Porte  or  the  Sul 
tan,  nor  because  of  any  disenchantment  of  the 
Orient.  The  heart  has  no  reason;  or,  rather,  it 
has  reasons  of  its  own.  Call  it  homesickness,  or 
patriotism,  or  an  inclination  after  old  and  fixed 
parliamentary  habits,  or  the  ineradicable  desire  to 
be  near  one^s  own — and  you  have  the  best  explan 
ation  that  can  be  made  for  my  premeditated  and 
unprecipitated  return.  I  had  done  all  that  a  Min 
ister  of  my  ability  could  do  to  place  the  Legation 
and  the  American  interests  in  excellent  condition." 
From  Constantinople,  September  11,  he  wrote  to 
a  friend :  "Your  letter  found  me  packing  for  home. 
We  sail  from  Havre  2d  Oct.  for  N.  Y.  Hurrah!  I 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  149 

already  feel  the  sweet  lager-bier  breezes  from  the 
Isle  of  Coney!" 

Shortly  after  his  resignation  and  return  home 
he  received  the  decoration  of  the  "Order  of  the 
Mejidieh"  from  his  Imperial  Majesty,  the  Sultan 
Abdul  llamid,  the  decoration  of  the  "Order  of  the 
Chefakat"  having,  as  we  have  seen,  already  been 
bestowed  on  the  Minister's  wife  in  Turkey.  Both 
these  decorations  are  at  present  in  the  care  of  the 
National  museum  in  Washington. 

An  enthusiastic  welcome  awaited  Mr.  Cox  on  his 
arrival  home. 

He  returned  to  find  himself  twice  a  candidate 
at  the  same  election — a  candidate  for  the  seat  in 
the  Forty-ninth  Congress  vacated  by  the  resigna 
tion  of  Joseph  Pulitzer,  as  well  as  a  candidate  for 
the  full  term  of  the  Fiftieth  Congress.  To  both 
seats  he  was  elected  by  his  old-time  majorities. 
"So  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  ascertain/7  said  Rep 
resentative  Cummings,  "Mr.  Cox  is  the  only  man 
who  has  ever  been  twice  elected  to  the  same  Con 
gress" — alluding  to  his  second  election  to  the 
Forty-ninth  Congress.  His  reappearance  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  which  had  sadly  missed 
his  familiar  figure  and  the  genial  warmth  of  his 
presence,  was  gladly  welcomed  by  colleagues  of 
all  parties.  On  that  camp-ground  Richard  was 
indeed  himself  again — once  more  on  his  native 
heath. 

In  the  autumn  of  1888  a  strong  pressure  was 
brought  to  bear  upon  Mr.  Cox  to  resign  from  con 
gress  and  accept  the  Democratic  nomination  for 
Mayor  of  New  York.  He  firmly  refused  such  use 
of  his  name,  although  his  nomination  would  have 
been  equivalent  to  an  election.  He  felt  that  his 


150  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

proper  sphere  was  the  Hall  of  Representatives.  He 
accepted  a  renomination  to  congress  and  his  re 
election  followed  as  of  course.  It  was  his  last.  He 
died  before  the  fifty-first  congress,  of  which  he 
was  a  member-elect,  met. 

In  the  fiftieth  congress,  which  began  its  exist 
ence  March  4, 1887,  and  expired  March  4,  1889,  Mr. 
Cox  chose  the  chairmanship  of  the  Census  commit 
tee,  and  was  assigned  to  that  position  by  Speaker 
Carlisle.  Preparations  were  making  for  the  elev 
enth  census,  a  work  in  which  he  took  a  leading  in 
terest.  The  bill  under  which  the  enumeration  of 
inhabitants  and  statistics  of  the  industries  of  the 
country  w^ere  taken,  in  1890,  was  reported  by  him. 
In  its  fulness  and  elaboration  he  took  a  pardona 
ble  pride.  He  was  proud  of  the  increase  in  both 
wealth  and  numbers,  of  the  component  parts  of 
the  union,  and  rejoiced  in  all  signs  of  public  pros 
perity.  To  measures  before  that  congress  having 
for  their  object  the  irrigation  of  the  arid  plains  of 
the  far  west,  and  their  restoration  through  a  sup 
ply  of  water,  to  fertility,  Mr.  Cox  gave  earnest  sup 
port.  As  object  lessons  he  pointed  to  Syria  and 
Asia  Minor,  where,  by  the  destruction  of  moun 
tain  forests  and  neglect  of  irrigation  works  that 
once  existed,  wrater  supplies  had  been  lost,  and 
sterility  had  ensued  where  once  were  fertile  lands 
sustaining  great  populations  and  prosperous 
states.  Another  proposition  that  enlisted  his  act 
ive  sympathy  and  earnest  support  related  to  the 
admission  of  four  new  states.  Considerations  of 
party  expediency,  wrhich  arrayed  many  of  his  par 
ty  associates  against  giving  the  far  west  additional 
votes  in  the  electoral  college,  had  not  weight  with 
Mr.  Cox,  who  disavowed  such  considerations  as  of 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  151 

too  narrow  a  guage  for  broad  statesmanship.  He 
looked  upon  the  rise  of  the  free  commonwealths 
in  the  northwest  with  only  a  patriot's  eye.  That 
his  efforts  were  fully  appreciated  was  made  mani 
fest  by  the  popular  ovation  which  greeted  him  on 
his  flying  trip  through  those  new  states  in  the  sum 
mer  of  1889,  a  few  weeks  before  his  untimely 
death.  "On  the  4th  of  July,"  says  one  account, 
"Mr.  Cox  stood  in  the  midst  of  assembled  thous 
ands  of  his  fellow  citizens  at  Huron,  in  the  then 
territory  of  Dakota.  No  more  imposing  or  grander 
ovation  was  ever  given  to  an  American  citizen 
than  was  given  him  on  that  occasion.  The  prair 
ies,  the  towns,  and  the  villages  for  miles  around 
were  deserted,  for  their  inhabitants  would  look 
upon  their  great  deliverer.  These  people  would 
hear  the  voice  of  the  eminent  statesman  who,  in 
the  House  of  Representatives,  had  raised  his  voice 
for  fair  ^/ay.  They  were  not  drawn  tv,  the  place  so 
much  to  hear  the  great  orator  a*  to  l<^,k  upon  the 
man  whose  great  heart  had  borne  him  beyond  the 
line  which  his  party  had  set  for  him.  He  was  their 
hero.  They  pressed  upon  him,  for  they  deemed  him 
something  nobler  than  a  mere  orator  or  statesman. 
They  felt  him  to  be  a  fellow  citizen,  kind,  generous 
and  full  of  good  will." 

It  was  the  middle  of  August  when  Mr.  Cox,  with 
his  wife,  arrived  home  from  the  trip  above  de 
scribed.  He  hurried  to  Manhattan  Beach,  as  many 
times  before  when  wrearied  by  overwork  or  over- 
travel,  to  regain  needed  rrst.  In  a  hasty  note  to 
a  friend  he  said:  "Hither  I  have  hied  to  the  salt 
sea  beach  where  I  correct  my  abnormal  condition 
of  health  and  my  printer's  proofs.  To-night  the 
wraves  dash  high  over  the  walks  where  yesterday 


152  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

we  gallanted  each  other.  It's  fine!  Here  come 
those  thoughts  which  make  one  sedate;  for  here 
we  walk 

"Thoughtful,  silent,  on  the  solemn  shore 
Of  that  vast  ocean  we  must  sail  so  soon." 

Little  he  thought  how  soon!  A  note  dated  Au 
gust  25  from  the  Manhattan  Beach  hotel,  "this  gor 
geous  marine  hospital,"  as  he  styled  it,  the  note 
written  while  the  ears  were  "dimmed  with  the 
music  of  the  band,"  said:  "We  leave  in  the  morn 
ing  for  home." 

Prophetic  words!  It  was  "home"  indeed  to 
which  he  was  going,  and  so  soon! 

The  last  occasion  on  which  he  went  out  of  the 
house  was  Friday  evening,  August  30,  to  attend 
the  "grand  annual  summer  night's  festival  of  the 
New  York  Letter  Carriers'  Association,"  at  the 
Empire  City  Coloseum  and  Washington  Park.  He 
had  been  ill  two  weeks.  That  one  evening,  feeling 
better,  he  was  urged  and  consented  to  ride  up  in 
a  close  carriarge  for  the  purpose  of  receiving  from 
the  letter  carriers  a  large  and  beautiful  album, 
which  they  had  been  waiting  six  months  to  pre 
sent  him.  He  professed  not  to  be  much  wearied; 
he  made  a  brave  effort  to  keep  up.  It  was,  how 
ever,  his  last  effort  to  leave  his  room.  Eleven 
davs  later  the  end  came. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

A  RETROSPECT. 

Samuel  Sullivan  Cox  was  just  thirty-two  years 
of  age  when  he  was  first  elected  to  a  seat  in  Con 
gress.  His  last  election  to  membership  in  that 
body  was  when  he  had  doubled  those  years,  and 
was  just  sixty-four.  His  congressional  service 
was  cotemporaneous  with  the  incumbency  of  every 
president,  save  one,  from  Buchanan  to  McKinley. 
That  exception  was  President  Andrew  Johnson. 
While  Mr.  Cox  was  in  the  public  service  at  one 
end  of  Pennsylvania  avenue  there  sat  in  the  White 
House,  at  the  other  end  of  that  historic  avenue,  in 
their  order,  eight  presidents:  James  Buchanan, 
Abraham  Lincoln,  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  Rutherford 
B.  Hayes,  James  A.  Garfield,  Chester  A.  Arthur, 
Grover  Cleveland  and  Benjamin  Harrison.  Of 
these  he  was  in  political  sympathy  with  only  two 
—Buchanan  and  Cleveland — and  with  the  former 
the  bonds  were  broken  almost  at  the  very  thresh- 
hold  of  their  association  in  public  life,  and  never 
altogether  re-cemented. 

His  Democracy  was  of  the  Jeffersonian  order. 
He  was  a  firm  believer  not  only  in  the  right,  but 
as  well  in  the  capacity  of  the  people  to  rule. 
Throughout  his  long  public  career  he  strenuously 
opposed  any  and  every  proposition  to  abridge  or 
abbreviate  this  right.  His  democracy  was  inher 
ited  from  his  ancestors  on  both  sides.  His  break 


154  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

with  the  Buchanan  administration  was  because  he 
saw  that  administration  attempting  to  throttle 
the  will  of  the  people  of  Kansas  by  foisting  upon 
the  new  State  the  Lecompton  constitution.  His 
first  speech  in  the  House — the  first  ever  made  in 
the  present  Hall  of  Representatives — was  a  gaunt 
let  thrown  to  that  administration  which,  lie  be 
lieved,  was  attempting  to  strangle  popular  sov 
ereignty.  Whenever  his  party  refused  to  follow 
the  teachings  of  Thomas  Jefferson  and  to  remain 
true  to  the  people,  Mr.  Cox  broke  loose  from  party 
ties,  and  obeyed  the  dictates  of  his  own  conscience. 
In  obedience  to  these  dictates,  in  his  last 
session  in  Congress  he  separated  from  most  of  his 
party  associates  in  advocating  the  admission  of 
four  new  States,  believing  that  such  questions 
should  be  decided  on  broad  grounds  of  public  pol 
icy,  without  consideration  of  their  probable  effect 
on  this  party  or  that.  The  scope  of  his  horizon 
was  too  broad  for  a  party-at-any-price  follower. 

In  the  album  of  a  classmate  at  Brown  Univer 
sity,  just  as  he  was  leaving  that  institution,  he 
made  this  entry,  in  which  he  refers  to  his  inherited 
love  of  the  party  he  served  so  well: 

"Samuel  Sullivan  Cox,  Zanesville,  O.  Born 
about  midnight,  30  Sept.,  1824.  Expect  to  study 
law  if  I  don't  get  better.  Shall  live  in  Ohio  till  I 
die,  provided  I  live  till  I  get  there.  The  friend 
who  reads  this  will,  I  hope,  forget  the  many  faults 
and  recollect  the  few  (very  few)  good  characteris 
tics  of  the  waiter.  That  he  has  anything  to  rec 
ommend  him  to  recollection  he  modestly  doubts, 
yet  he  would  be  remembered  by  a  classmate  as  he 
himself  expects  to  remember.  One  failing  he  re 
joices  in — his  'unterrified  Democracy.'  He  drank 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  155 

in  with  his  mother's  milk  the  spirit  of  liberty,  and 
tradition  says  that  at  his  birth  a  scroll  of  fire 
danced  around  the  bedposts  with  the  words  writ 
ten  thereon:  4Salus  populi  suprema  lex.' ' 

He  was  ever  true  to  the  spirit  of  the  tradition. 

His  was  too  genial  a  nature  to  brood  long  over 
wrong  done  him,  or  permanently  to  treasure  the 
spirit  of  revenge.  Years  after  the  Lecompton 
controversy  had  passed  into  history,  Mr.  Cox,  still 
in  Congress,  received  one  day  from  the  venerable 
Buchanan,  then  in  retirement  and  nearing  the  end 
of  his  eventful  life,  a  letter  almost  pathetic,  asking 
of  him  a  personal  favor.  uOnly  to  you,"  said  the 
letter,  "can  I  lok  now  for  such  kindly  favors."  He 
looked  not  in  vain.  The  recollection  of  decapi 
tated  postmasters  in  his  district  did  not  deter  Mr. 
Cox  from  gladly  seeking  to  oblige  Buchanan,  the 
ex-president,  with  a  zeal  not  a  whit  behind  that 
with  which  he  opposed  him  as  President  when  he 
believed  him  in  the  wrong.  So  kindly  a  nature 
could  not  long  carry  a  spirit  of  resentment. 

At  one  time  or  another,  during  his  long  Con 
gressional  service,  he  was  a  member  of  almost 
every  important  committee  of  the  House.  He 
served  on  Revolutionary  Claims,  the  Ways  and 
Means,  always  standing  for  the  free  trade  princi 
ple,  Appropriations,  Foreign  Affairs,Naval  Affairs, 
Banking  and  Currency,  the  Census,  and  others. 
Of  several  of  these  he  was,  when  his  party  wras  in 
the  ascendancy,  chairman.  Although  the  drudg 
ery  of  committee  work  was  hardly  to  his  taste,  he 
was  a  faithful  and  conscientious  worker  in  com 
mittee,  and  no  member's  services  were  prized  more 
highly  than  his.  Capacity  for  details  was  espec 
ially  shown  by  him  in  the  preparation  for  the 


156  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

tenth  and  eleventh  census,  by  the  committee  over 
which  he  presided.  It  was  a  revelation  to  the 
census-makers.  He  was  regent  of  the  Smithson 
ian  institution  for  many  years,  and  took  a  warm 
and  active  interest  in  its  welfare.  As  a  member 
of  the  Library  Committee  he  was  largely  instru 
mental  in  bringing  about  the  erection  of  the  pres 
ent  magnificent  structure  for  housing  the  Con 
gressional  library.  But  it  was  on  the  floor  of  the 
House  that  he  shone  resplendent.  Here  he  wield 
ed  a  free  lance.  By  the  splendor  of  his  equipment, 
by  his  breadth  and  depth  of  knowledge  of  what 
ever  subject  came  before  the  House,  he  vras  a  con 
stant  wonder  to  his  associates.  When  had  he 
gathered  such  resources,  and  where  had  he  stored 
them  with  such  method  as  never  to  be  at  a  loss 
whence  to  draw  them?  No  orator  in  Congress, 
when  he  rose,  more  quickly  hushed  his  audience. 
The  confusion  at  once  ceased,  members  gathered 
around  him  the  better  to  hear  his  words,  and  the 
galleries  listened  intently  to  catch  each  syllable. 
They  watched,  generally  not  in  vain,  for  the  sal 
lies  and  flashes  of  wit,  with  which  his  speech  was 
illumined.  But  'these  were  merely  accessories, 
side  lights,  as  it  were.  He  spoke  ably  on  every 
question  of  national  interest  that  came  before 
Congress  in  his  day.  Many  of  his  speeches,  aside 
from  their  other  merits,  were  gems  of  literature. 
He  was  an  untiring  wrorker.  He  was  not  con 
tent  to  deal  with  the  surface  of  things,  but  must 
needs  go  to  the  very  bottom.  He  knew  no  idle 
moments.  In  the  arrangement  of  his  papers  and 
in  the  outline  of  his  work  he  was  method  itself. 
He  learned  it,  he  said,  from  the  same  source  from 


FROM  PHOTOGRAPHS  OF  S.  S.  COX  AT  DIFFERENT  PERIODS.1 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  157 

which  he  imbibed  his  political  economy,  from 
Francis  Wayland,  his  president  at  Brown. 

His  oratory  was  as  polished  as  the  Damascus 
blade.  History,  mythology,  science,  philosophy, 
literature,  sacred  and  secular,  were  resources  ever 
at  hand  from  which  to  illustrate  or  adorn.  He 
was  a  great  student  of  the  Bible,  and  few  men  in 
public  life  showed  an  equal  familiarity  with  its 
pages.  For  religion  he  had  naught  but  respect, 
and  never  was  heard  to  indulge  a  sneer  at  things 
sacred.  He  was  true  to  his  religious  training. 

Of  his  vast  number  of  "set"  speeches,  on  about 
every  important  subject  before  Congress  in  his 
long  career,  none  excelled  in  beauty  of  diction  his 
obituary  addresses. 

"These  efforts,"  well  said  a  contemporary  publi 
cation,  "full  of  delicacy,  seriousness,  appreciation, 
grandeur  of  thought,  and  the  poetry  of  pathos, 
shovr  how  close  the  fountain  of  tears  lies  to  the 
fountain  of  laughter  in  the  mysterious  cham 
bers  of  the  heart.  The  man  who  laughs  most  eas 
ily  is  almost  always  the  one  who  weeps  most  eas 
ily  and  feelingly.  The  power  to  perceive  what  is 
incongruous  and  comical  in  thought  and  act,  and 
touch  the  chords  of  humor,  is  akin  to  that  other 
power  which  sees  and  feels  the  grandeur  of  duty, 
the  heroism  of  action,  and  the  solemnities  of  fate. 
If  Mr.  Cox  is  capable  of  the  former,  he  is  a  recog 
nized  master  of  the  latter." 

Sir  Edwin  Arnold,  in  an  interview  in  London 
with  an  American  newspaper  correspondent,  after 
his  return  from  a  visit  to  the  United  States,  re 
ferred  to  Mr.  Cox  as  "a  statesman  whose  name 
should  be  sacred  to  the  heart  of  every  true  Ameri- 


158  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

can — one  who  has  done  so  much  for  his  country 
men." 

Gen.  W.  T.  Sherman,  in  a  conversation  with  a 
friend  a  few  days  before  his  death,  regarding  the 
statue,  which  it  was  then  proposed  to  erect  to  the 
memory  of  Mr.  Cox,  in  which  he  manifested  a 
warm  interest,  on  being  told  where  it  w^as  likely  to 
be  placed,  made  this  comment:  "But  I  should 
think  you  boys  would  try  and  secure  a  site  in  the 
Central  Park  for  the  statue,  and  as  near  to  that  of 
Daniel  Webster  as  possible — in  that  circle  oppo 
site;  then  you  would  have  here  two  great  common 
ers  together,  the  one  representing  the  Senate,  and 
the  other  representing  the  House  of  Representa 
tives." 

There  was  ever  a  warm  place  in  his  heart  for 
his  Alma  Mater,  Brown  University.  Whatever 
success  in  life  he  attained  he  attributed  in  no  small 
degree  to  the  training  he  there  received.  On  its 
part  the  University  was  proud  of  the  honors 
heaped  upon  its  brilliant  son.  Beside  the  degrees 
of  Bachelors  of  Arts,  in  course,  in  1846,  and  Mas 
ter  of  Arts  in  1849,  Brown  University  in  1885  con 
ferred  upon  Mr.  Cox  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws. 


CHAPTER  XX. 


MR.    COX   AND   THE   ELECTORAL   COMMISSION. 


In  the  exciting  scenes  that  led  up  to  the  framing 
of  the  Electoral  Commission  bill,  in  the  winter  of 
1876-7,  and  its  adoption  by  Congress,  Mr.  Cox 
maintained  rather  a  passive  than  an  active  role. 
With  a  majority  of  his  party  he  accepted  the  pro 
posed  scheme  for  the  solution  of  the  ugly  prob 
lem  with  which  the  country  was  confronted,  but 
at  no  time  was  sanguine  as  to  its  outcome.  He 
voted  for  the  bill,  but  did  not  share  in  the  enthu 
siasm  over  it  indulged  in  by  the  majority  of  his 
party.  His  relations  to  the  measure  were  forcibly 
stated  in  a  speech  made  on  the  Commission's  deci 
sion  of  the  Louisiana  contest,  February  19,  1877, 
when  no  longer  a  doubt  was  felt  anywhere  as  to 
the  final  outcome.  "Mr.  Speaker,"  said  Mr.  Cox 
on  this  occasion,  "after  many  years  of  active  ser 
vice  as  a  member  of  this  House,  recalling  all  the 
vicissitudes  of  our  politics  for  twenty  years,  I  can 
not  feel  responsible  to-day  that  after  the  verdict  of 
the  American  people  it  should  prove  a  fruitless 
verdict.  In  1864,  on  the  16th  of  May,  I  presented 
a  resolution  to  this  House,  which  passed.  It  re 
lated  to  the  regularity  and  authenticity  of  the 
returns  of  electoral  votes  and  for  a  law  to  provide 
for  a  jurisdiction  as  well  as  the  course  of  pro- 


160  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

ceeding  in  case  of  a  'real  controversy/  The  Judi 
ciary  Comimttee  took  no  action  at  that  time. 
Allow  me  to  quote  the  resolution.  It  is  a  com- 
pend  of  the  situation : 

'Resolved,  That  the  Judiciary  Committee  be 
directed  to  take  into  consideration  the  propriety 
of  reporting  a  bill  providing  for  the  decision  of 
any  question  which  may  arise  as  to  the  regularity 
and  authenticity  of  the  returns  of  the  electoral 
vote  for  President  and  Vice  President  of  the 
United  States,  or  the  right  of  the  persons  who 
gave  the  votes  or  the  manner  in  which  they  ought 
to  be  counted;  and  that  such  law  provide  for  the 
jurisdiction,  as  well  as  the  course  of  proceeding, 
in  a  case  of  real  controversy.' " 

Had  the  action  contemplated  been  taken,  and 
the  legislation  proposed  been  engrafted  upon  the 
Federal  Statutes,  the  crisis  of  1876-7,  in  which  for 
months  the  country  stood  upon  the  brink  of  civil 
war  as  the  fruit  of  a  disputed  election  for  the 
Presidency,  might  have  been  averted.  "Peril," 
added  Mr.  Oox,  after  quoting  his  resolution  of 
1864,  "gives  the  lessons  of  years  in  a  day.'7  The 
speech  which  was  thus  prefaced  was,  he  subse 
quently  explained,  made  for  history — the  judg 
ment  being  foregone.  In  the  course  thereof  he 
said: 

"Peril  gives  the  lessons  of  years  in  a  day. 
*  *  Whether  the  steps  were  wisely  or  un 
wisely  taken  in  framing  the  Electoral  bill  is  not  to 
be  now  considered.  That  bill  is  the  law.  We 
know  what  it  is,  what  its  provisions  are.  We 
knew  and  felt  that  some  virtue  had  gone  out  of 
this  House  when  we  passed  it,  but  we  did  not 
exactly  see  where  the  virtue  had  alighted.  We 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  161 

knew  the  old  privileges  of  the  Commons  had  de 
parted,  but  in  the  interest  of  peace  we  gave  a 
reluctant  vote  for  the  bill.  It  was  voted  for  in  a 
spirit  of  confidence  and  in  a  moment  of  peril,  and 
under  terror  of  force  and  revolution,  which  speaks 
more  for  the  caution  than  for  the  pluck  of  our  peo 
ple.  Still  it  was  enacted.  We  are  bound  by  its 
decisions,  but  not  by  its  reasons.  The  faith  of 
those  who  voted  for  it  was  strong  in  the  integrity 
and  purity  of  their  case;  and  next  in  the  fidelity 
and  independence  of  the  tribunal.  We  placed  our 
faith  in  the  ermine.  *  *  *  We  are  graciously 
permitted  under  this  bill  to  argue  after  the  matter- 
is  accomplished,  and  although  we  vote,  and 
although  we  carry  our  vote  in  the  House,  we  are 
'gone.'  We  gain  nothing.  We  are  permitted  to 
talk  ten  minutes  after  the  counting  and  the  conclu 
sion.  It  is  the  old  Virgilian  line  over  again  about 
Khadamanthus,  judge  of  hell, — Castigatque  audit- 
que  dolos — the  old  rule  of  hanging  a  man  and  try 
ing  him  afterward.  That  is  our  condition  to-day." 

Then  caustically  reviewing  the  Commission's 
decision,  by  a  vote  of  8  to  7,  to  refuse  to  go  behind 
the  returns — treating  all  such  testimony  as  ali- 
unde — Mr.  Cox  (we  copy  from  the  Congressional 
Record  of  that  day)  thus  closed  as  the  hammer 
fell: 

"Mr.  Cox — With  permission  of  the  House  I  wall 
read  from  Psalms  94,  verse  20:  Shall  the  throne  of 
iniquity  have  fellowship  with  thee,  which  frameth 
mischief  by  a  law— 

"Mr.  Kelley — I  object.     (Laughter.) 

"Mr.  Southard — I  hope  the  gentlemen  on  that 
side  wrill  listen  to  those  words,  that  they  may  have 
time  to  repent. 


162  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

"Several  members  objected. 

"Mr.  Cox — The  Bible  is  aliunde  with  these  gen 
tlemen.  (Great  laughter.)" 

Mr.  Cox's  record  was  in  harmony  with  this 
speech:  he  refused  to  be  a  party  to  obstruction 
of  the  enforcement  of  the  law,  believing  that,  how 
ever  subversive  of  justice  as  viewed  from  his 
standpoint,  the  result  was  to  be  accepted  in  good 
faith. 


CHAPTER   XXL 


So  long  ago  as  1859  Mr.  Cox  flung  bodly  to  the 
breeze  the  flag  of  Cuban  annexation.  President 
Buchanan,  in  his  annual  message,  had  recommend 
ed  an  appropriation — $30,000,000  were  the  figures 
fixed  upon — for  the  purchase  of  Cuba.  In  a 
speech  in  the  House  on  January  18,  1859,  Mr.  Cox 
took  the  ground  that  Cuban  annexation  was  man 
ifest  destiny. 

"There  is"  he  said,  "a  logic  in  history  which  is  as 
inexorable  as  fate.  The  disquieting  aspect  of  cie- 
Atlantic  politics  signifies  the  consummation  of 
territorial  changes  on  this  continent,  long  pre 
dicted,  long  delayed,  but  as  certain  as  the  logic  of 
history!  *  *  *  The  largest  expression  of  this 
law  of  annexation  is:  That  no  nation  has  the  right 
to  hold  soil,  virgin  and  rich,  yet  unproducing;  no 
nation  has  the  right  to  hold  great  isthmian  high 
ways,  or  great  defences,  on  this  continent  without 
the  desire,  will,  or  power  to  use  them.  They  ought, 
and  must,  inure  to  the  advancement  of  our  com 
merce.  They  must  become  confiscate  to  the  de 
crees  of  Providence. 

"Had  the  Thirty-fourth  Congress  aided  President 
Pierce  in  the  Black  Warrior  matter,  we  should 
now  have  representatives  from  Cuba  on  this  floor. 


164  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

As  to  Cuba  the  reasons  for  its  acquisition  are  well 
understood  by  the  country.  Its  geographical  po 
sition  gives  to  the  nation  which  holds  it,  unless 
that  nation  be  very  weak,  a  coign  of  vantage  as  to 
which  self-preservation  forbids  us  to  be  indiffer 
ent.  While  the  island  is  of  little  use  to  Spain,  save 
as  a  source  of  revenue,  it  is  to  us  of  incalculable 
advantage.  , 

"Our  unsettled  claims,  and  many  other  difficul 
ties,  growing  out  of  our  relations  to  Spain,  demand 
settlement,  but  receive  none.  How  long  shall  we 
continue  in  this  condition?  During  the  pleasure  of 
Spain?  Is  there  no  redress?  Is  our  every  attempt 
to  be  construed  into  usurpation?  What  impedi 
ments  have  we  to  meet?  There  is  one  which  has, 
since  Mr.  Adam's  time,  proved  insurmountable- 
Spanish  pride. 

"It  is  well  said  by  an  old  poet  that 
"Spain   gives   in   pride,  which    Spain,  of   all  the 

earth, 
May  freely  give,  nor  fear  herself  a  dearth." 

"Since  then  there  has  been  no  curtailment  of 
that  pride.  True,  Spain  has  now  little  to  be  proud 
of  but  her  recollections.  Poor,  sensitive,  corrupt, 
she  holds  to  the  punctilio  of  dignity  without  its 
substantial  energy.  If  Spain  will  not  sell  Cuba  to 
us,  we  must  insist  upon  her  changing  its  policy. 
We  have  tried  in  vain  by  diplomacy  to  unloosen 
these  shackles  (on  commerce).  *  *  *  Nothing 
but  the  sword  can  cut  them  off.  Such  a  system  in 
this  era  of  commercial  freedom  is  a  shame  to  civil 
ization,  and  if  international  law  were  rightly  writ 
ten,  it  would  itself  be  a  cause  of  honorable  war! 
*  *  *  Call  it  by  what  name  you  will,  I  am 
ready  to  answer  the  call  of  the  President,  if  for 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  165 

nothing  else,  for  the  benefit  of  the  f 250,000,000  of 
yearly  trade  which  must  pass  under  the  range  of 
Cuban  cannon. 

"I  am  ready  to  vote  for  the  bill  looking  to  the 
purchase  of  Cuba.  In  case  of  our  failure  to  pur 
chase  by  honorable  negotiation  I  would  favor  its 
seizure  in  case  of  foreign  war  or  of  a  European  in 
tervention.  *  *  *  We  have  become  a  Colos 
sus  on  this  continent  with  a  strength  and  stride 
that  will  and  must  be  heeded. 

"With  our  domestic  policy  as  to  local  govern 
ments  established,  we  can  go  on  and  Americanize 
this  continent  and  make  it  what  Providence  in 
tended  it  should  become,  by  a  perpetual  growth 
and  an  unsevered  Union — the  paragon  in  history 
for  order,  harmony,  happiness  and  power!" 

When,  taking  advantage  of  our  civil  war,  Napo 
leon,  Emperor  of  France,  was  seeking  to  erect  a 
throne  in  Mexico  and  seat  Maximilian  thereon,  Mr. 
Cox,  with  William  Cullen  Bryant  and  others,  ad 
dressed  a  vast  mass  meeting  at  Cooper  Institute 
demanding  that  the  Monroe  doctrine  be  enforced 
and  the  French  driven  out  of  Mexico.  Some  of  his 
words  read  to-day  prophetic.  "There  is,"  he  said, 
"one  fact  in  connection  with  the  Monroe  doctrine. 
At  present  it  has  only  been  regarded  as  a  brutum 
fulmen;  it  has  been  simply  an  enunciation,  not 
backed  up  by  the  power  or  force  of  the  United 
States.  But,  sooner  or  later,  the  time  will  come 
when  the  force  of  the  United  States  will  be  invoked 
in  support  of  a  doctrine  which  is,  as  it  were,  the 
first  letter  of  the  alphabet  of  the  American  people. 
That  doctrine  will  ultimately  become  the  only  doc 
trine  which  can  be  followed  out  in  the  interest  of 
the  honor  of  this  great  country.  *  *  *  There  is 


166  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

no  room  on  our  continent  for  the  establishment  of 
monarchies.  United  in  the  determination  to  pre 
serve  this  continent  to  republicanism,  we  shall  be 
able,  should  the  duty  of  the  hour  require  it,  to  put 
a  million  of  men  in  the  field ;  and  with  such  a  force, 
the  American  people,  if  the  issue  be  put  upon  them 
will  revindicate  their  policy." 

Resolutions  in  favor  of  recognizing  the  Cubans 
as  belligerents  in  their  struggle  to  throw  off  the 
Spanish  yoke,  introduced  by  Mr.  Cox  into  the  For 
ty-second  Congress,  elicited,  on  January  10,  1872, 
from  the  New  York  Evening  Mail  (Rep.)  this  em- 
pahtic  approval: 

"We  thank  one  of  the  ablest  representatives  in 
the  House,  the  Hon.  S.  S.  Cox,  for  the  introduction 
of  a  series  of  resolutions  in  favor  of  granting  bel 
ligerent  rights  to  the  struggling  patriots  of  Cuba. 
It  is  as  plain  as  noonday  that  the  struggle  in  which 
one  hundred  thousand  Spanish  soldiers  have,  dur 
ing  the  past  three  years,  been  engaged,  is  as  much 
of  a  war  as  was  wraged  by  any  one  of  half  a  dozen 
South  American  colonies  for  independence  from 
Spanish  tyranny."  The  same  paper  warned  the 
(Grant)  Administration  and  its  Representatives  in 
Congress  that  "they  must  not  allow  Mr.  Cox  and 
his  party  to  appear  before  the  country  as  the  espec 
ial  champions  of  recognition,"  as  "on  such  an  issue 
as  this  there  should  be  no  party  lines."  Had  these 
resolutions  been  adopted,  how  different  might  have 
been  the  course  of  American  history!  But  the 
country  was  not  yet  ripe  for  the  course  proposed. 

It  was  on  the  eighth  day  of  January,  1872,  that 
Mr.  Cox  introduced  a  "joint  resolution  for  the  rec 
ognition  of  belligerent  rights  between  the  kingdom 
of  Spain  and  the  so-called  Republic  of  Cuba,"  as 
follows: 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  167 

"Whereas,  the  inhabitants  of  a  portion  of  the 
kingdom  of  Spain,  to  wit,  the  island  of  Cuba,  have 
been  waging  war  against  Spain  for  their  indepen 
dence  for  a  period  of  now  more  than  three  years, 
the  existence  of  which  war  has  been  and  is 
acknowledged  by  Spain  in  sundry  public  acts  and 
documents;  and 

"Whereas,  During  this  war  Spain  has  been  al 
lowed  to  supply  her  armies  and  navy  from  the  fac 
tories,  dockyards  and  arsenals  of  this  country  with 
every  material  requisite  for  warfare,  while  the  Cu 
bans,  in  direct  opposition  to  a  fair  spirit  of  neutral 
ity,  have  been  denied  similar  advantages,  and  ves 
sels  freighted  with  arms  and  ammunition,  destined 
for  the  Cubans,  in  accordance  with  the  legal  right 
of  American  citizens  to  trade  in  arms  with  peoples 
and  powers  who  are  at  war,  and  in  the  exercise  of 
what  has  been  declared,  both  by  the  Executive  and 
a  Federal  court,  to  be  a  legitimate  voyage,  have, 
in  violation  of  law  and  equity,  been  detained  and 
subjected  to  delays  by  an  unfair  perversion  of  jus 
tice,  to  the  detriment  of  the  interests  of  American 
citizens;  and 

"Whereas,  Measures  should  be  adopted  to  pro 
tect  the  rights  and  interests  of  American  citizens 
engaged  in  legitimate  commerce,  and  to  prevent 
the  recurrence  of  losses  which  may  arise  from  the 
fact  that  this  Government  has  not  yet  acknowl 
edged  the  existence  of  the  Republic  of  Cuba;  and 

"Whereas,  The  majority  of  the  independent  re 
publics  of  this  hemisphere  have  recognized  the  bel 
ligerency  of  Cuba,  which  acts  have  tacitly  been 
admitted  by  Spain  to  be  not  incompatible  with  the 
spirit  of  amity  toward  herself;  and 

"W7hereas,  Spain  has  herself,  by  acknowledging 


168  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

the  independence  of  sundry  republics  on  this  con 
tinent,  once  her  colonies,  acknowledged  the  rights 
they  had  to  wage  war  for  their  independence  as 
Cuba  is  fighting  to-day  for  hers;  and 

"Whereas,  by  the  principles  of  international  law 
an  inherent  right  is  vested  in  the  sovereignty  of 
every  independent  nation  to  declare,  when  conven 
ient,  the  existence  of  belligerency  between  any 
other  nations,  or  between  the  inhabitants  of  any 
integral  portion  of  any  such  nation ;  and 

"Whereas,  The  rendering  assistance  to  all  peo- 
plrs  struggling  in  this  hemisphere  for  the  rights  of 
self-government,  by  all  just  means  not  in  contra 
vention  to  international  law,  is  a  thorough  Amer 
ican  policy,  consonant  writh  the  principles  on  which 
our  own  independence  is  based ;  therefore, 

"Resolved,  By  the  Senate  and  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  of  the  United  States  of  America,  in  Con 
gress  assembled,  that  it  recognizes  the  existence  of 
a  state  of  war  between  the  kingdom  of  Spain  and 
the  so-called  republic  of  Cuba,  and  hereby  declares 
both  parties  to  the  conflict  entitled  to  all  the  rights 
conceded  to  belligerents  by  international  law." 

This  resolution  was  referred  to  the  Foreign  Af 
fairs  Committee,  in  which  it  slept  the  sleep  that 
knows  no  awakening.  Mr.  Cox,  on  the  17th  of  Feb 
ruary,  by  leave  of  the  House,  submitted  his  views 
on  the  subject,  which,  he  said,  were  not  only  "in 
the  interest  of  commerce,"  but  in  the  line  he  had 
"carefully  marked  out  as  a  student  of  international 
law.'  He  added:  "Loving  the  Island  of  Cuba  as  a 
rare  and  wonderful  portion  of  our  star,  knowing 
the  vicissitudes  of  its  history,  feeling  the  indigna 
tion  as  a  man,  almost,  I  might  say,  as  a  boy,  'who 
is  father  to  the  man,'  against  the  horrible  massacre 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  169 

of  American  citizens  and  Cuban  students  by  the 
nation  whose  flag  is  a  river  of  blood  between  banks 
of  gold;  believing  that  the  welfare  of  the  present 
and  rising  generation  in  Cuba  depends  on  the  ac 
tion  of  this  nation,  I  propose  to  vindicate  by  a  con 
cise  statement  the  resolution  I  offered.    It  is  now 
before  the  Foreign  Affairs  Committee,  and  it  sleeps 
there  as  serenely  as  if  there  were  no  crimes  against 
the  law  of  nations  committed  in  Cuba,  as  if  there 
were  no  outrages  against  childhood,  humanity  and 
God,  illustrated  by  the  fiends,  who,   under  the 
name  of  volunteers,  rule  the  rule  of  Spain  to  make 
a  hell  of  that  paradise  of  islands."    This  was  pre 
lude  to  a  forcible  argument  from  the  standpoint 
of  international  law  in  favor  of  the  proposed  recog 
nition.    More  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  later  the 
country  found  itself  on  his  platform.    "Do  you  ask 
me,"  asked  he  at  a  mass  meeting  at  Steinway  Hall 
on  the  heels  of  the  Virginius  outrage,  "do  you  ask 
me  for  the  remedy?    I  answer,  the  intervention  of 
civilized  nations  to  stop  such  atrocities." 

Again,  in  a  speech  in  the  House,  December  12, 
1879,  in  favor  of  strengthening  our  coast  defenses, 
he  referred  to  Spain  as  a  perpetual  menace  to  our 
peace.  "It  will  not  do,"  he  said,  "to  rely  on  a  divine 
Providence  altogether  for  our  future  defenses. 
Ericssons,  with  their  monitors,  are  not  to  be  im 
provised  every  day  against  surprises  of  the  Merri- 
macs.  The  engineers  may  continue,  mechanical 
processes  take  time,  but  the  nation  that  has  both 
is  the  victor.  *  *  *  If  complications,  at  any 
time  possible,  should  arise  between  the  United 
States  and  any  foreign  naval  powrer,  great  or 
small,  what  would  we  do  except  to  submit  if  we 
were  unable  to  resist  an  attack  on  the  sea  coast  or 
the  sea? 


170  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

"Am  I  told  that  there  is  no  danger  of  a  breaking 
out  of  hostilities,  and  therefore  no  need  of  making 
appropriations  for  the  armament  of  our  forts?  The 
time  has  not  yet  come  for  the  lion  and  the  lamb  to 
lie  down  together.  The  ploughshare  and  pruning 
hook  are  liable  at  any  time  to  be  converted  into 
the  bayonet  and  sword.  Our  increasing  trade  and 
growing  relations  with  other  countries  admonish 
us  to  be  ready  at  least  for  defence,  if  not  for  ag 
gression. 

Think  of  our  critical  relations  with  Spain.  How 
often  in  late  years  have  wre  been  on  the  verge  of  a 
conflict  with  Spain!  Her  present  commercial  re 
lations  with  us  are  a  perpetual  menace.  Her  tar 
iff  so  discriminates  against  this  country  that  it  is 
almost  robbery.  When  we  consider  our  exports 
and  imports  to  Cuba  alone,  the  discrimination 
against  us  is  so  marked  an  evidence  of  selfishness 
and  enmity  that  it  is  almost  a  casus  belli.  *  * 
We  have  been  Spain's  best  customer.  Yet  how 
shabbily  and  meanly  we  are  treated  by  her.  The 
Spanish  tariff  favors  her  own  vessels  to  such  an 
extent  as  to  deny  to  us  advantages  given  other 
countries.  Do  you  say  that  this  kind  of  tariff  will 
be  ameliorated?  Never  while  we  are  at  the  mercy 
of  Spain's  800  rifled  guns,  her  six  first-class  iron 
clads,  and  her  armored  ships;  never  while  the  city 
of  New  York  can  be  placed  under  these  guns  and 
exactions  made  by  the  hundred  millions.  Is  it  not 
therefore,  wise  and  prudent  to  prepare  for  the 
armament  of  our  fortifications  that  we  may  back 
our  negotiations  by  proper  force  and  make  our 
country  respected  for  its  position  as  a  power  on  the 
earth?"  But  the  warning  passed  unheeded. 


CHAPTER   XXII. 


OUR   DEBT   TO   IRELAND. 

Mr.  Cox  ever  refused  to  recognize  any  distinc 
tion  between  American  citizenship  that  was  native 
and  the  species  that  was  adopted.  Consequently 
he  insisted,  always,  that,  at  whatever  cost,  the 
government  should  protect  all  alike  who  should 
rightfully  claim  its  protection.  He  was-  a  thor 
ough  believer  in  the  doctrine  that  when  a  natural 
ized  citizen  of  the  United  States  returns  to  his  na 
tive  land  he  is  still  an  American  citizen,  and  as 
such  is  ever  entitled  to  the  aegis  of  American  pro 
tection.  No  American  statesman  did  as  much  to 
advocate,  defend  and  protect,  the  rights  of  Ameri 
can  citizens  abroad.  It  was  the  pressure  brought 
on  the  government  by  him  that  opened  the  doors 
of  British  prisons  and  let  in  the  light  to  the  victims 
there  confined. 

When  in  the  winter  of  1880  Charles  Stewart 
Parnell  visited  the  United  States,  it  was  a  resolu 
tion  offered  by  S.  S.  Cox  that  opened  the  Hall  of 
Representatives  to  Ireland's  eloquent  champion, 
and  brought  that  body  to  lisften  to  his  plea  for  Ire 
land,  delivered  from  the  speaker's  place.  His  reso 
lution  did  more — it  requested  the  participation  of 
the  House  in  the  ceremonies,  "because  of  the  great 
interest  which  the  people  of  the  United  States  take 


172  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

in  the  condition  of  Ireland,  with  which  this  coun 
try  is  so  closely  allied  by  many  historic  and  kin 
dred  ties." 

The  incarceration  of  Capt.  Edward  O'Meagher 
Condon  in  a  British  dungeon  received  a  prompt  at 
tention  from  Mr.  Cox,  at  the  time  chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs.  For  Condon,  it 
was  claimed,  and  truthfully,  that  he  was  an  Amer 
ican  citizen.  On  the  13th  of  June,  1878,  he  report 
ed  from  the  committee  a  joint  resolution  request 
ing  the  President  to  take  such  action  as  would  se 
cure  Condon  a  speedy  and  impartial  trial.  In  a 
forcible  speech  in  support  of  his  resolution,  Mr. 
Cox  cited  the  Revised  Statutes  to  prove  that  the 
law  was  ample  in  its  provisions  for  an  executive 
demand  on  the  British  government,  and  for  inter 
vention  in  such  a  case.  The  House  was  so  im 
pressed  with  his  argument  that  the  resolution  was 
promptly  adopted.  The  next  day  it  passed  the 
Senate  and  was  signed  by  the  President  on  the 
next. 

In  a  speech  made  July  15,  1876,  he  said:" When 
our  nation  began  its  first  century  it  had  but  a  pop 
ulation  of  2,750,000.  Its  area  has  been  extended 
from  800,000  miles  to  3,603,844  square  miles.  An 
nexation  has  quadrupled  our  area  since  the  Rev 
olution.  But  with  all  our  purchases  of  Florida, 
Louisiana,  New  Mexico,  California  and  Alaska  we 
gained  fewer  than  150,000  inhabitants,  while  the 
acquisition  of  Texas  and  Oregon  merely  restored 
to  citizenship  those  who  had  emigrated  from  the 
United  States.  In  more  senses  than  one,  there 
fore,  should  wre  rely  upon  immigration  to  develop 
the  vast  resources,  mineral,  agricultural,  and  man 
ufacturing,  which  tend  to  make  a  country  great 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  173 

and  prosperous.  What  a  commentary,  therefore, 
in  this  view  is  the  false  platform  and  narrow  policy 
of  the  anti-naturalization  and  anti-immigration 
party." 

"It  is  not  a  new  thing  for  the  American  Gov 
ernment  to  take  an  interest  in  Irish  prisoners. 
Every  generous  heart  will  recognize  the  fact  that 
Ireland  and  her  destiny  cannot  be  dissociated  from 
her  warm-hearted  sons  in  this  country.  From  the 
time  of  Cromwell  and  his  attempt  to  root  out  the 
Celtic-Irish  with  his  penalties,  down  to  the  present 
time,  millions  of  Irishmen  have  had  their  property 
confiscated,  their  families  scattered,  and  their 
bodies  killed  to  gratify  some  unreasoning  and  big 
oted  vengeance  on  the  part  of  her  Anglo-Saxon 
enemies  and  rulers.  But  her  spirit  has  never  been 
conquered.  It  is  impossible  for  a  true  Irishman, 
unless  you  rend  his  heart  and  paralyze  his  brain, 
not  to  love  Ireland. 

"The  people  of  my  district,  Mr.  Speaker,  a  large 
portion  of  whom  are  descended  of  those  who  emi 
grated  thence,  would  find  me  derelict  in  iny  duty 
did  I  not  sympathize  with  their  sympathy.  By 
cable  and  steamship  and  by  the  thousands  of  let 
ters  and  messages  of  affection,  by  whole  clans  and 
counties,  they  are  interweaving  the  island  of  Man 
hattan  with  the  island  of  Ireland.  This  sympathy 
is  quicker  than  the  sub-ocean  lightning.  It  is  the 
instinct  of  son  and  daughter  for  mother  and  father. 
It  has  been  enlarged,  warmed,  and  fused  into  a 
heavenly  radiance.  Again  and  again,  are  the 
wrongs  of  Ireland  spoken  of  most  significantly  in 
public  meetings  and  at  the  domestic  hearth. 

"The  history  of  Ireland  is  not  alone  the  history 
of  her  religious  faith,  but  the  history  of  political 


174  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

independence  and  civil  freedom.  Before  the  time 
of  the  Tudors,  before  the  time  when  the  King's 
writ  ran  beyond  the  pale  about  Dublin,  down 
through  harsh  penal  laws  and  ecclesiastical  estab 
lishments,  foreign  to  her  best  emotions  about  the 
seen  and  unseen  world,  through  evictions,  land 
laws,  and  trade  exactions,  she  has  been  galled 
without  cowardly  wincing,  but  galled  at  times 
into  courageous  revolt. 

"Our  sympathies  belong  to  Ireland,  for  our  revo 
lution  was  hers. 

"Ireland,  too,  had  her  revolution;  but  unsuccess 
ful  revolutions  are  called  rebellions;  but  did  she 
not  contend,  and  does  she  not,  through  Isaac 
Butts,  O'Connor  Power,  and  others,  to-day  con 
tend  for  the  principle  of  her  early  day  when  Grat- 
tan  thundered  and  Emmett  died?  Did  she  not 
contend,  not  alone  in  her  own  land,  but  here,  and 
wherever  the  sword  of  Erin  flashed,  for  the  banner 
above  all  battle-flags :  representation,  and  no  taxa 
tion  without  it.  Concord,  Monmouth,  Saratoga, 
Valley  Forge,  Yorktown,  all  testify  of  deeds  done 
in  liberty's  name,  but  deeds  done  for  man's  capac 
ity  for  home-rule.  Jefferson  taught  the  truth, 
which  Irishmen  loved  to  champion,  that  feudality 
in  form  or  substance  was  tyranny;  that  absentee 
ism  was  robbery;  that  vassalage  was  cowardice, 
and  independence  courage;  and  that  the  fire  and 
smoke  of  war  are  simple  butchery  unless  beneath 
there  is  the  pure  molten  white  heat  of  patriotic 
devotion.  Jealous  of  power,  confiding  in  the  peo 
ple,  and  instinct  with  a  love  of  country,  he  gave 
his  theory  and  conduct  to  the  illustration  of  that 
heaven-imaged  scroll  of  stars,  moving  in  harmony 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  175 

about  the  central  sun,    the    type    of    our  stately 
cluster  about  the  Union  and  its  splendid  ensign. 

"To  Ireland,  America  is  indebted  as  well  for  her 
prosperity  in  a  great  degree  as  for  her  early  settle 
ment.  After  the  English  revolution  of  1688,  when 
the  barbarous  Orange  policy  inaugurated  by  Eng 
land  drove  men  from  their  island  home,  a  tide  of 
emigration  set  in  toward  the  American  colonies. 
Irish  trade  and  manufactures  were  destroyed  and 
wars  and  penal  laws  drove  Irishmen  across  the 
ocean.  They  filled  our  colonies  with  their  emi 
grants.  At  least  a  million  of  the  three  million 
who  inhabited  the  thirteen  colonies  at  the  begin 
ning  of  the  Revolution  were  Irish  by  birth  or  de 
scent.  They  spread  and  multiplied  in  our  land 
from  the  Potomac  to  the  Ohio,  from  the  Saco  to  the 
Juniata.  They  enlivened  the  land  with  their  hu 
morous  spirit,  their  cheerful  industry,  and  their 
alacrious  belligerency.  When  independence 
came  to  be  our  only  prospect,  the  first  undaunted 
rebel  was  John  Sullivan,  who  with  his  Celtic  band 
marched  upon  the  fortress  of  William  and  Mary, 
in  New  Hampshire,  and  captured  it.  This  was 
the  first  blow  of  the  Revolution.  In  May,  1775, 
the  O'Briens,  six  in  number,  fought  the  first  naval 
battle  of  the  war,  and  won  it.  The  names  of  gal 
lant  Irishmen  shine  like  stars  all  through  the  murk 
of  the  Revolution.  To  recount  them  is  to  recount 
the  stories  of  Monmouth,  Saratoga,  Bennington, 
Valley  Forge,  Stony  Point,  and  Yorktown.  Why, 
one  of  the  charges  against  the  Irish  in  England 
was  that  16,000  of  them  fought  on  the  side  of 
America,  This  was  one  of  the  pretexts  for  refus 
ing  redress  to  the  Catholics  of  Ireland.  A  steady 
influx  of  immigration  since  has  filled  our  confines 


176  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

with  14,000,000  of  Celtic  blood.  The  names  of 
Barry,  Montgomery,  Jasper,  Warren,  Clinton,  Rut- 
ledge,  Wayne,  and  Jackson  but  feebly  portray  the 
gorgeous  galaxy  of  Irish  patriots  who  gave  to 
America  their  fervor  and  their  fighting,  their 
bravery  and  their  blood. 

"Mr.  Speaker,  it  is  in  this  mosaic,  made  up  of  all 
races  and  nations,  in  which  we  find  our  growth, 
happiness,  and  unity.  The  streams  of  thought 
and  feeling  from  the  Old  World  have  made  us 
something  more  than  a  congeries  of  British  colo 
nies  or  a  unity  of  selfish  States.  Our  very  motto, 
"From  many,  one,"  indicates  the  cause  of  our 
greatness  as  well  a»  of  our  growth;  it  speaks  of 
our  varied  vitality  fused  with  united  patriotism. 

"It  is  not  possible,  Mr.  Speaker,  to  roll  back  the 
shadow  on  the  dial-plate  of  time.  The  sun  will 
not  stand  still  at  human  voice.  This  immigra 
tion  from  the  Old  World,  with  its  thousand  elevat 
ing  and  assimilating  qualities,  will  go  on.  No 
sectarian  bitterness  or  bigoted  hate  can  turn  away 
the  people  of  this  country  from  the  belief  in  the 
principles  of  religious  freedom  fixed  and  eternized 
down  in  their  organic  laws." 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 


THE   PERSECUTED  JEWS. 

Closing  a  speech  on  the  persecution  of  the  Jews 
in  Kussia,  made  in  the  House  May  21, 1880,  he  paid 
that  ancient  race  this  tribute: 

"Whether  it  shall  ever  come  to  pass  that  this  re 
markable  race  shall  repossess  the  land  of  their  an 
cestors;  whether  the  temple  shall  again  arise 
within  the  walls  of  Zion;  whether  the  teachings 
of  their  religion  and  all  the  elevated  thoughts  of 
their  poets,  prophets  and  priests  shall  be  sung 
even  'within  thy  gates,  O  Jerusalem/  one  thing  is 
to  be  conceded,  that  in  America,  under  our  free 
institutions,  they  are  permitted,  unmolested,  to 
worship  the  Jehovah  of  their  fathers!  Here  at 
least  they  have  a  highway  out  of  Egypt  into  the 
promised  land!  Wherever  may  be  their  local  hab 
itation,  from  the  summit  of  Mount  Sinai  still  ra 
diates  the  eternal  lesson  cut  in  stone;  from  the 
calcined  soil  and  the  sacred  mountains  of  Judea 
goes  forth  an  effluence  to  civilize,  cheer  and  bless. 

"No  one  can  be  so  darkened  in  his  understanding 
as  not  to  see  the  wonderful  power  of  that  little 
land  through  which  the  Jordan  flows,  with  a  pop 
ulation  not  larger  than  one  of  our  own  countries; 
which  for  two  thousand  years  and  more  has  held 
the  world  in  thrall  by  its  teachings  and  by  its  wor- 


178  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

ship  of  the  invisible  Jehovah.  Its  people  have  car 
ried  the  ark  of  their  covenant  into  many  lands  and 
climes;  and  though  bigotry  may  still  be  pleased  to 
think  that  their  dispersion  as  a  people  is  a  curse, 
still  from  their  migrations  humanity  has  been 
beautified,  justice  purified,  and  liberty  glorified! 
Out  of  their  rigid  and  austere  code  there  springs 
and  flows  forever  an  influence  as  gentle  as  the 
dews  that  fell  upon  Hermon  and  as  potential  as 
the  quaking  of  Sinai,  out  of  whose  throes  came 
the  moral  law  of  mankind!" 

A  resolution  having  been  introduced  into  the 
House  which  looked  like  an  apology  to  Chancellor 
Bismarck  for  resolutions  previously  passed  by  the 
House,  expressing  sympathy  for  the  death  of  Ed 
ward  Lasker,  a  member  of  the  German  Keichstag, 
Mr.  Cox  opposed  the  implied  apology  with  fiery  elo 
quence.  Incidentally  his  speech  was  a  splendid 
tribute  to  the  Jewish  race.  Among  other  things 
he  said: 

"This  manly  man,  Herr  Lasker,  was  a  type  of  a 
great  class.  He  was  a  friend  of  labor.  He  was 
its  interpreter  and  prophet,  its  friend  and  adviser 
in  a  realm  where  the  word  of  the  Kaiser  was  law, 
and  liberty  was  suppressed  by  penalty  and  force. 
He  wTas  the  representative  of  democracy  in  the 
larger  sense  of  that  term.  He  was  an  orator  and  a 
splendid  type  of  the  great  race  that  has  come  down 
to  us  from  the  'chosen  people,'  in  earlier  times. 
The  tribute  paid  to  his  memory  was  also  a  tribute 
to  the  race  from  which  he  sprung — a  race  whose 
history  runs  back  into  the  dawn  of  time.  To  that 
race  we  owe  our  entire  system  of  ethics  and  the 
preservation  of  the  foundations  of  religion.  Amid 
centuries  of  glorious  nationality  and  through  long 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  179 

ages  of  intolerance  and  most  cruel  persecution, 
Hebrew  virtue,  pride,  and  courage  remain  untar 
nished  by  the  hand  of  time.  In  everything  that 
broadens  civilization,  Hebrew  genius,  intellect,  re 
search,  and  learning  stand  forth  pre-eminent. 

"What  a  race  has  been  stricken  by  the  death  of 
this  distinguished  German  and  Hebrew!  I  say  it 
is  only  a  part  of  the  history  of  persecutions  which 
in  this  day  of  the  nineteenth  century  are  a  humil 
iation  and  not  to  be  tolerated  in  this  country.  In 
the  Middle  Ages  one  nation  alone  sacrificed  six 
hundred  thousand  Jews.  They  were  the  flower 
of  science,  the  devotees  of  literature,  skilled 
in  art,  and  enthusiastic  in  poetry.  They 
were  men  of  industry,  enterprise,  and  commerce — 
honest,  social  and  hospitable.  I  would  not  suffer 
for  a  moment  that  we  should  give  even  a  possible 
shadow  of  excuse  for  bowing  before  the  terrible 
specter  of  persecution. 

"Twice  have  I  called  the  attention  of  the  House 
to  the  persecutions  of  the  Jews  in  Kussia.  We  have 
become  used  to  the  persecutions  in  that  country. 
It  is  a  part  of  its  barbarism.  But  it  is  only  within 
the  past  few  years  that  the  same  ruthless  system 
of  persecution  has  obtained  in  Germany.  The 
time  of  Hebraic  liberty  will  come,  and  I  trnst 
soon,  as  it  has  come  in  this  and  some  countries  in 
Europe,  notably  in  Spain,  which  has  invited  the 
Hebrew  exiles  of  Germany  to  her  shores.  To  the 
Hebrew  race  it  is  proclaimed  by  God  himself  in 
Holy  Writ:  'I  will  shake  all  the  nations,  and  the 
desire  of  all  the  nations  shall  come,  and  I  will  fill 
this  house  with  glory,  saith  Jehovah  the  Lord  of 
Hosts/ 


180  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

"It  becomes  us  especially  who  have  offered  an 
asylum  to  these  stricken  people,  and  in  view  of 
their  remarkable  attainments  in  all  that  civilizes 
and  blesses,  that  the  indirect  insult  to  their  race, 
through  one  of  their  distinguished  sons,  shall  re 
ceive  no  mitigation  by  tenders  of  semi-sympathy 
to  the  organ  of  autocratic  power,  even  where  that 
power  is  concealed  in  the  silken  glove  of  an  ac 
complished  statesman." 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 


CHAMPION   OF   AMERICAN   COMMERCE. 


The  upbuilding  of  American  commerce  was  ever 
a  pet  object  with  Mr.  Cox.  To  this  end  he  con 
stantly  advocated  every  measure  before  Congress 
which  promised  to  remove  the  burdens  imposed 
on  American  merchant  marine,  and  to  encourage 
the  American  foreign-carrying  trade.  One  of  his 
many  speeches  on  this  subject  was  delivered  in  the 
House  April  26,  1884.  "Free  Ships  and  Tree  Ma 
terials"  was  its  watchword.  In  the  course  of  that 
speech^  he  said : 

"When  the  causes  of  our  commercial  ruin  have 
been  brought  home  to  the  understanding  of  our 
toilers  in  the  ship-yards  and  the  merchants  in  their 
counting  rooms,  the  system  of  prohibition  is 
doomed.  Is  American  industry  to  be  forever  like 
an  imaginary  cripple,  afraid  to  lay  aside  its 
crutches  though  he  be  able  to  walk  better  without 
them?  Kepeal  our  restrictive  laws  and  five  years 
will  not  roll  away  before  we  will,  by  free  labor, 
hold  our  own  market  and  contend  with  the  for 
eigner  successfully  in  the  markets  of  the  world. 

"In  my  despair  at  the  dilatory,  not  to  say  un 
wise  legislation  here  for  the  revival  of  our  naviga 
tion,  I  turn  as  a  believer  in  our  material  advance 
ment  to  the  Baconic  inductions  of  physics  and  the 


182  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

probable  results  of  our  utilitarian  methods  of  re 
search.  Invention  is  not  a  newborn  muse  which 
descants  upon  a  new  order  to  usher  in  a  new  era; 
for  the  ancients  reckoned  the  inventor  as  among 
the  heroes  and  demi-gods  along  with  the  founders 
of  empire.  What  may  not  come  in  the  form  of  ma 
terial  development  to  relieve  us  and  bring  back  our 
olden  and  golden  glory  upon  the  sea!  Our  age  is 
one  of  natural  forces  with  wondrous  practical  ap 
plications.  These  forces,  including  the  vapor  of 
water  and  the  spark  of  electricity  along  with  other 
elements  not  yet  known,  are  the  subtle  agents  har 
nessed  by  man,  powers  we  know  not  what  or 
whence,  but  powers  in  league  with  the  reason  and 
genius  of  man,  to  do  his  work  on  land  and  ocean 
for  the  amelioration  and  civilization  of  our  kind. 
By  these  forces  we  are  day  by  day  bringing  nations 
closer  and  closer  to  each  other.  Oceans  no  longer 
divide.  That  mysterious  realm  is  no  longer  an 
abyss.  It  is  bridged.  The  elements  harmonize 
and  unite.  Where  once  there  was  a  flaming 
sword,  now  there  are  well  known  paths  over  the 
bosom  of  the  deep,  traced  by  the  genius  of  Maury 
and  traveled  by  the  steamer  which  mates  the  ocean 
in  its  wildest  saturnalia.  This  House,  elected  on 
principles  of  reciprocity  and  liberality,  may  in  har 
mony  with  material  advancement,  at  least  do  what 
was  done  by  the  last  Republican  House,  which, 
professing  no  special  creed  on  these  topics,  and  al 
though  it  repented  of  its  generous  vote  the  next 
day  and  reversed  its  action,  did  adopt  the  two 
propositions  I  have  here  urged — one  for  free  ma 
terials,  to  help  the  ship-builder,  and  the  other  for 
free  ships,  to  help  the  ship  owner.  I  trust  that 
these  may  clasp  hands  and  go  as  one  and  together, 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  183 

for  the  enhancement  of  our  mercantile  marine  and 
for  the  glory  of  our  starry  flag."  (Applause.) 

One  of  his  last  efforts,  and  for  which  the  City 
of  New  York  thanked  him,  was  the  passing  of  a 
law  effectually  preserving  New  York  harbor  and 
its  tributaries  from  destruction.  Although  he 
abhorred  war  and  regarded  it  as  the  resort  of  bar 
barism,  Mr.  Cox  wras  not  unmindful  of  the  neces 
sity  of  defense  and  the  needs  of  national  honor,  as 
'his  speech  in  the  Forty-Eighth  Congress  as  chair 
man  on  naval  affairs  will  show.  In  his  speech, 
which  was  delivered  on  June  30,  1884,  he  illus 
trates  in  a  remarkable  degree  tJie  conscientious 
legislative  la.bor  and  foresight  of  the  man. 

"For  my  part,"  said  he,  "I  would  prefer  to  ex 
pend  four  millions  of  dollars  for  one  first-class 
war  vessel  that  would  be  able  to  overhaul  the 
Oregon  or  Alaska,  and  merchant  steamers  of  that 
type  when  armed  as  cruisers,  than  have  a  dozen 
such  cruisers  as  the  Chicago,  Boston,  Atlanta  or 
Dolphin  for  the  same  money.  I  have  no  confidence 
in  the  slow  speed  policy  of  the  Advisory  Board  in 
this  age  of  high  speed  and  scientific  advancements. 
The  steel  cruisers  which  we  are  now  building  are 
already  behind  the  requirements  of  the  day.  I  risk 
nothing  in  saying  this  when  I  can  point  to  such 
British  merchant  steamers  as  the  Oregon  and 
Alaska.  These  are  types  of  all  large  British  mer 
chant  steamers  that  are  hereafter  to  be  built.  None 
are  to  be  inferior  to  these.  Most  of  those  yet  to  be 
built  will  surpass  them.  We  who  have  no  techni 
cal  naval  knowledge  can  easily  see  that  our  steel 
cruisers,  the  Chicago  and  the  others,  are  a  mistake. 
They  are  not  capable  of  effective  cruising  service 
in  war  time." 


184  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

Has  not  the  war  with  Spain,  in  showing  the 
superiority  of  fast-atiling  cruisers  abundantly 
demonstrated  the  wisdom  of  the  policy  Mr.  Cox 
advocated  many  years  ago? 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


THE  "LETTER  CARRIERS'  FRIEND." 


Mr.  Cox  was  the  earliest  and  most  steadfast  of 
champions  of  the  interests  of  the  employes  in  the 
postal  service,  especially  the  Letter  Carriers,  and 
every  important  measure  standing  on  the  statute 
books  for  their  benefit  was  placed  there  through 
his  efforts.  Chief  among  these  measures  were 
those  affecting  the  Letter  Carriers.  The  first, 
gives  the  Letter  Carriers  an  annual  vaca 
tion  of  fifteen  days  without  loss  of  pay — au 
thorizing  the  employment  meanwhile  of  substi 
tutes.  The  second  gives  them  a  fixed  salary,  which 
the  Postmaster  General  himself  is  unable  to  disturb. 
The  third  limits  a  day's  work  to  eight  hours,  and 
provides  that  for  any  additional  hour  or  hours  the 
carrier  may  be  employed,  he  shall  "be  paid  extra 
for  the  same  in  proportion  to  the  salary  now  fixed 
by  law."  The  gratitude  of  this  class  of  public 
servants  to  Mr.  Cox  was  manifest  on  many  notable 
occasions  during  his  life,  and  is  no  less  manifest 
now  that  he  wots  not  of  it. 

When  Mr.  Cox  took  up  in  Congress  the  cause  of 
the  Letter  Carriers,  his  first  efforts  were  directed 
to  the  securing  of  legislation  which  should  give 
them  stated  salaries.  He  saw  that  the  compensa 
tion  of  a  Letter  Carrier  was  governed  largely,  if 


186  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

not  altogether,  by  the  caprice  of  the  Postmaster 
under  whom  he  was  serving.  A  lump  sum  was 
given  a  Postmaster  to  be  distributed  among  his 
employes,  according  to  his  own  sweet  will  and 
pleasure.  Naturally,  he  had  his  favorites,  and  nat 
urally,  too,  these  were  taken  better  care  of  than 
those  on  whom  he  smiled  not. 

It  was  to  preclude  all  favoritism,  to  put  every 
Letter  Carrier  beyond  the  power  of  suffering  from 
this  caprice  of  his  employer,  and  to  equalize  as 
well  as  fix  salaries,  that  Mr.  Cox  entered  upon  an 
undertaking  beset  by  many  obstacles,  and  which 
took  years  to  fully  accomplish. 

More  or  less  the  carrier  was  a  foot  ball  of  poli 
tics.  Sometimes  he  was  sent  for  by  the  party  boss 
and  threatened  with  a  reduction  of  pay  if  he  hesi 
tated  to  grind  the  ax  of  that  boss.  He  knew  not, 
at  the  beginning  of  a  campaign  what  would  be  his 
fate  at  its  close.  It  was  emancipation  from  this 
state  of  servitude  that  Mr.  Cox  sought  and  ob 
tained  for  the  letter  carriers. 

In  an  address  before  the  Letter  Carriers  of  Bos 
ton  and  the  workmen  at  the  navy  yard,  in  historic 
Faneuil  Hall,  Mr.  Cox  briefly  referred  to  his  labors 
in  Congress  in  behalf  of  the  Letter  Carriers.  "I 
tender  my  acknowledgments,'7  said  he,  "to  the  Let 
ter  Carriers  of  Boston  for  recognizing  my  humble 
efforts,  through  many  years,  to  raise  their  wages 
to  an  adequate  sum.  At  last,  on  February  21, 
1879,  my  bill  passed  both  houses.  It  was  signed. 
It  was  left  unexecuted  under  various  pretenses. 
'Oh!'  it  was  said,  'the  carriers  are  not  yet  classified 
and  would  not  be  until  July  1.'  A  mere  show  and 
not  at  all  creditable  to  any  concerned.  The  com 
mittees  in  both  houses  endeavored  on  that  their 


LITTLE  ETHEL  VAN  ZANT  SULLIVAN. 
(Grandniece  of  S.  S.  Cox,  who  unveiled  Letter  Carriers'  Statue.) 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  187 

pretext  to  cut  down  the  salaries  of  that  bill  below 
the  sums  allowed,  and  to  begin  the  lower  pay  on 
the  first  of  July.  When  the  bill  went  to  the  Sen 
ate  it  was  not  only  thus  curtailed  but  was  loaded 
down  with  riders  as  to  swamp  lands,  Osage  inter 
est  money,  railroad  mail  transportation  pay,  and 
what  not.  I  had  to  fight  these  in  detail.  Some 
were  throttled,  some  not,  to  save  the  bill.  Hap 
pily  the  Carriers  have  their  tasks  requited  with  a 
larger  salary." 

Another  measure  in  the  interests  of  the  Letter 
Carriers,  obtained  through  Mr.  Cox's  efforts,  is 
known  as  the  "Carriers'  Vacation  Law."  Under 
its  provisions  every  letter  carrier  in  the  United 
States  is  entitled  to  an  annual  vacation  of  fifteen 
days,  with  full  pay  during  that  time,  his  duties, 
meanwhile,  performed  by  a  substitute,  who  is  also 
paid  by  the  government.  Before  the  passage  of 
this  act  a  vacation  to  a  letter  carrier  came  only 
through  the  grace  of  his  Postmaster.  It  comes  to 
him  now  through  the  law  of  the  land,  and  no 
thanks  to  either  Postmaster  or  Postmaster  Gen 
eral. 

In  recognition  of  this  important  service 
at  a  special  meeting  of  the  letter  carriers 
of  the  branches  of  the  New  York  postoffice  held  on 
July  20,  1884,  the  following  preamble  and  resolu 
tions  were  unanimously  adopted: 

"The  letter  carriers  of  the  branches  of  the  New 
York  Postoffice  feel  deeply  indebted  to  Honorable 
Samuel  S.  Cox  for  the  valuable  service  he  has  ren 
dered  them  and  the  letter  carriers  generally  in  the 
United  States  by  his  advocacy  before  the  United 
States  Congress  of  just  and  proper  legislation  in 
their  behalf. 


188  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

"And  whereas  they  desire  to  place  on  record 
some  suitable  expression  of  their  warm  esteem  for 
him  personally  and  their  very  high  appreciation  of 
the  valuable  services  rendered  them,  therefore  be 
it 

"Resolved,  That  the  most  earnest  thanks  of  the 
letter  carriers  of  the  branches  of  the  New  York 
Postoffice  be  and  are  hereby  unanimously  tendered 
to  the  Hon.  Samuel  S.  Cox  for  his  efficient  and  inde 
fatigable  efforts  to  secure  by  act  of  Congress  to 
the  letter  carriers  a  much  needed  annual  vacation 
of  two  weeks. 

"Resolved,  That  we  recognize  in  the  Hon.  S.  S. 
Cox,  not  only  a  true  friend,  but  an  eminent  states 
man  and  legislator  whose  official  power  has  been 
wisely  exercised  for  the  best  interests  of  the  public 
service. 

"Resolved,  That  this  preamble  and  resolutions 
be  suitably  engrossed,  framed  and  presented  to  the 
Honorable  Samuel  S.  Cox  as  an  expression  of  our 
warm  personal  esteem  and  of  our  united  wishes 
that  he  may  long  continue  to  do  honor  as  an  able 
and  upright  public  servant." 

The  presentation  of  an  elaborately  engrossed 
copy  of  these  resolutions  to  Mr.  Cox  at  his  resi 
dence  by  the  committee  was  accompanied  with  the 
further  presentation  of  a  magnificent  gold  watch> 
which  was  prized  by  him  to  the  day  of  his  death  as 
one  of  his  choicest  possessions. 

This  was  followed,  after  Mr.  Cox's  return  to 
Congress  succeeding  his  mission  in  Turkey,  by  the 
eight  hour  law  being  applied  to  Letter  Carriers. 
Mr.  Cox's  part  in  passing  these  three  measures  of 
inestimable  value  to  the  Letter  Carriers,  was  thus 
summed  up  by  one  of  their  numbers,  George  H. 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  189 

Newson,  in  a  speech  presenting  a  statue  of  the 
'Letter  Carriers'  Friend"  to  the  City  of  New  York, 
July  4,  1891.  "When,"  said  Mr.  Newson,  "Mr. 
Cox  understood  that  the  Letter  Carriers  were  re 
ceiving  less  compensation  than  the  driver  of  a 
horse  car  and  the  laborers  on  the  street,  he  did  not 
believe  that  the  qualifications  on  the  one  side  and 
the  compensation  on  the  other  were  evenly  bal 
anced.  He  saw  a  duty,  and  when  Congress  met, 
he  introduced  a  bill  to  increase  the  carriers'  sal 
aries.  We  well  remember  how  patiently,  hope 
fully,  and  yet  fearfully,  we  waited  and  watched  for 
the  result.  We  felt  that  our  cause  was  in  the 
hands  of  a  good  friend,  and  would  not  suffer  for 
the  want  of  devotion  on  his  part.  An  illustration 
of  his  earnestness  might  be  told  here.  The  bill 
had  passed  the  house  and  was  pending  in  the  Sen 
ate.  The  House  was  in  continued  session,  it  being 
the  last  few  days  of  Congress.  Mr.  Cox  thought 
his  work  was  done,  and  returned  home  to  New 
York  for  a  much  needed  rest.  He  left  word  with 
the  carriers'  representative  that  if  the  bill  was 
amended  in  the  Senate,  he  would  be  on  the  confer 
ence  committee,  and  that  if  he  was  needed  he 
should  be  sent  for,  and  he  would  return.  One 
night  at  about  eleven  o'clock  we  received  a  dis 
patch  from  Washington  stating  that  Mr.  Cox 
would  be  needed  next  morning.  A  messenger 
hurried  to  Mr.  Cox's  residence,  found  that  he  had 
retired;  but  when  he  was  made  acquainted  with 
the  nature  of  the  message,  he  immediately  arose, 
and  although  the  train  to  Washington  left  Jersey 
City  at  12:15  midnight,  Mr.  Cox  was  on  that  train, 
and  arrived  at  the  Capitol  at  8  o'clock  next  morn 
ing,  and  before  the  sun  went  down  that  day,  the 


190  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

salary  bill  had  become  a  law  as  far  as  the  Senate 
and  House  were  concerned. 

"It  had  been  a  custom  of  the  Postmaster  of  New 
York  to  grant  a  ten  days'  leave  of  absence  to  all 
carriers  in  the  New  York  postofflce.  He  was  not 
required  to  do  so  by  law,  nor  was  the  same  privi 
lege  granted  to  the  carriers  of  any  other  city.  For 
some  reason  or  other,  a  few  years  after  the  pass- 
sage  of  the  salary  bill,  the  department  at  Wash 
ington  instructed  the  Postmaster  at  New  York  to 
discontinue  these  vacations.  When  Mr.  Cox  be 
came  aware  of  that  fact,  he  presented  and  had 
passed  in  both  houses,  before  the  next  vacation 
season  came  around,  a  bill  giving  all  of  the  car 
riers  of  the  United  States  a  fifteen  days'  leave  of 
absence,  with  pay,  and  provided  some  one  to  do 
each  carrier's  work — so  that,  instead  of  the  carrier 
T-pppivinor  the  vacation  as  a  compliment,  he  re 
ceived  it  as  a  matter  of  right." 

Kespecting  the  history  of  the  act  constituting 
eight  hours  a  days'  work  for  a  carrier,  and  allow 
ing  him  pro  rata  pay  for  all  overtime,  Mr.  Newson 
said:  "When  the  fight  began,  if  we  may  call  it  a 
fight,  Mr.  Cox  wras  in  Turkey,  representing  the 
government.  We  felt  that  our  leader  was  gone, 
and  that  we  must  go  into  the  fight  without  him. 
We  had  already  waited  through  one  session  of 
Congress  without  any  action,  and  were  willing  to 
wait  two,  three,  or  four,  whatever  the  case  might 
be,  or  until  we  succeeded,  when  we  received  word 
that  Mr.  Cox  was  to  return  home  again.  We  felt 
that  with  his  presence  we  should  surely  win.  We 
gave  him  a  royal  reception  when  he  returned  home 
and  a  few  weeks  after  that  he  returned  to  Con 
gress,  and  immediately  espoused  our  cause.  That 
we  won  you  know  full  well." 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  191 

Not  at  once,  however,  were  the  fruits  of  the  vic 
tory  gathered.  The  Postoffice  Department,  which 
had  been  unable  to  defeat  the  passage  of  the  law, 
now  sought  means  to  nullify  it.  The  Department 
set  up  the  claim  that  eight  hours  a  day  meant  fifty- 
six  hours  a  week — that  if  a  carrier  was  not  em 
ployed  beyond  this  number  of  hours  per  week  there 
was  no  overtime.  If  not  employed  at  all  Sunday, 
the  fifty-six  hours  might  be  divided  through  the 
other  six  days — an  average  of  over  nine  hours  a 
day — according  to  the  postmaster's  sweet  will.  In 
this  contention,  strange  to  say,  the  Postoffice  De 
partment  was  sustained  by  its  legal  adviser,  the 
Assistant  Attorney  General  for  that  department. 
The  eight-hour  law,  drafted  by  Mr.  Cox,  was  placed 
on  the  statute  book  May  24, 1888.  For  nearly  three 
months  the  new  law  wras  ignored  altogether.  In 
August,  in  pursuance  of  a  policy  of  general  exten 
sion  of  the  free  delivery  service,  the  Department, 
in  place  of  putting  on  new  carriers,  undertook  to 
increase  the  working  hours  of  the  carriers  already 
employed  beyond  the  legal  eight.  Overtime  began 
then  and  there.  The  letter  carriers,  as  usual  when 
in  perplexity,  appealed  to  Mr.  Cox.  Their  com- 
mitteee  called  his  attention  to  what  had  been  rep 
resented  to  them  as  a  flaw  in  the  law  and  to  the 
construction  put  upon  it  by  the  Department.  Mr. 
Cox  promptly  replied  that  in  his  judgment  the  act 
was  complete — that  its  language  fully  bore  out  his 
intent  in  framing  it,  which  was  that  each  day  was 
to  be  considered  by  itself,  and  wras  not  to  be 
bunched  with  half  a  dozen  others.  And  he  advised 
them  to  fight  it  out  on  that  line. 

For  every  hour  of  overtime  on  any  day,  regard- 


192  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

less  of  any  other,  Mr.  Cox  maintained  that  the  Gov 
ernment  must  pay  pro  rata. 

Still,  year  after  year  the  overtime  went  on  under 
the  department's  construction  of  the  law.  Finally, 
three  years  after  Mr.  Cox's  death,  came  the  vindi 
cation  of  the  law  and  its  author.  A  test  case,  in 
volving  all  the  points  at  issue  was  made  up,  under 
Postmaster  General  Wanamaker,  and  submitted 
to  the  Court  of  Claims.  That  court  decided  in 
favor  of  the  letter  carriers.  Postmaster  General 
Wanamaker  appealed  the  case  to  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  and  the  highest  tri 
bunal  in  the  land  affirmed  the  decision  of  the  Court 
of  Claims.  That  settled  it  for  all  time.  What  Mr. 
Cox  intended  the  law  should  be,  such  it  wras.  Mr. 
Cox  had  not  been  drafting  laws  thirty  years  for 
nothing. 

What  was  the  upshot?  The  letter  carriers  were 
bidden  file  their  claims  for  overtime  during  the 
more  than  four  years  the  department  had,  under 
bad  advice,  misconstrued  a  perfectly  plain  enact 
ment.  The  claims  were  filed,  established  by  legal 
proof,  and  for  their  payment  the  Government  had, 
up  to  September,  1898,  appropriated  nearly  $3,- 
250,000. 

The  legal  end  of  the  carriers'  claims  for  overtime 
was  handled  by  the  Washington  attorneys,  the 
brothers  George  A.  and  William  B.  King.  In  the 
face  of  many  discouragements  these  attorneys 
bravely  fought  the  case  from  its  inception  in  the 
Court  of  Claims  to  its  triumphant  conclusion  in  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  And  they 
have  since  successfully  prosecuted  the  claims  for 
overtime  of  many  hundreds  of  carriers  throughout 
the  United  States.  It  is  no  small  tribute  to  Mr. 


STATUE  OF  S.  S.  COX,  ASTOR  PLACE,  NEW  YORK. 
(Erected  by  the  Letter  Carriers). 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  193 

Cox's  legal  astuteness  that  the  line  on  which  they 
fought  and  won  in  the  highest  court  of  the  land 
was  precisely  that  laid  down  by  the  author  of  the 
law  himself,  without  amendment  or  qualification. 
The  Supreme  Court,  in  a  decision  delivered  by 
Mr.  Justice  Samuel  Blatchford,  March  13,  1893, 
held  in  substance  as  follows: 

1.  That  a  carrier  is  entitled  to  count  all  work 
performed  by  him  under  proper  authority,  whether 
on  the  street  in  delivering  or  collecting  mails,  in 
making  up  mail  in  the  postoffice  for  delivery,  or  in 
doing  other  postal  service  under  direction  of  the 
postmaster. 

2.  That  a  carrier  is  entitled  to  extra  pay  for  any 
time  which  he  works  in  excess  of  eight  hours  upon 
any  one  day,  even  though  he  may  work  less  than 
eight  hours  on  some  other  day  . 

Said  Justice  Blatchford: 

"The  Court  of  Claims,  in  its  opinion,  arrived  at 
the  following  conclusions:  (1)  That  the  letter  car 
riers  were  entitled  to  recover,  not  only  for  all  work 
done  by  them  on  the  street  in  delivering  and  col 
lecting  mail  matter,  but  also  for  all  work  done  in 
the  postoffice,  in  receiving  and  arranging  the  let 
ters  of  their  routes.  (2)  That,  as  to  the  distribution 
of  mail  matter  for  the  boxes  and  general  delivery, 
during  the  times  intervening  between  one  trip  and 
another  in  the  same  day,  the  regulations  of  the  De 
partment  could  properly  be  construed  as  permit 
ting  such  services;  and  (3)  that,  as  to  the  services 
of  the  same  character  rendered  after  the  termina 
tion  of  the  last  trip  for  the  day  of  the  carrier  in 
delivering  and  collecting  mail  matter,  they  were 
services  fairly  within  the  power  of  the  postmaster 
to  prescribe. 


194  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

"We  are  of  opinion  that,  in  respect  of  all  such 
services,the  letter  carrier,  if  employed  therein  a 
greater  number  of  hours  than  eight  per  day,  was 
entitled  to  be  paid  extra.  To  hold  otherwise 
would  be  to  say  that  the  carrier  was  employed  con 
trary  to  the  regulations  of  the  Department,  when 
it  clearly  appears  that  he  was  employed  in  accord 
ance  with  such  regulations.  The  statute  mani 
festly  was  one  for  the  benefit  of  the  letter  carriers 
and  it  does  not  lie  in  the  mouth  of  the  Government 
to  contend  that  the  employment  in  question  was 
not  extra  service,  and  to  be  paid  for  as  such,  when 
it  appears  that  the  United  States,  in  accordance 
with  the  regulations  of  the  Postoffice  Department, 
actually  employed  the  letter  carriers  the  extra 
number  of  hours  per  day,  and  it  is  not  found  that 
they  were  so  employed  as  clerks.  The  postmaster 
was  the  agent  of  the  United  States  to  direct  the 
employment,  and  if  the  letter  carriers  had  not 
obeyed  the  orders  of  the  postmaster  they  could 
have  been  dismissed.  They  did  not  lose  their  legal 
rights  under  the  statute  by  obeying  such  orders. 

"Judgment  affirmed." 

Mr.  Cox  did  not  live  to  witness  the  crowning  tri 
umph  of  his  labors  in  behalf  of  the  letter  carriers, 
but  the  gratitude  of  the  men  he  so  zealously  and 
effectually  served  is  undying. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  last  public  ap 
pearance  of  Mr.  Cox  was  at  a  festival  held  by  the 
Letter  Carriers,  when  he  received  a  testimonal 
from  their  hands  and  made  his  last  public  speech. 
The  passage  of  the  eight-hour  bill  was  celebrated 
with  great  enthusiasm  by  the  Letter  Carriers  of 
the  United  States  in  the  Academy  of  Music,  New 
York,  on  the  Fourth  of  July  following.  At  this 


c 

"'-* 


a  a 


N 


il 


<r> 


OFFICERS  OF  NATIONAL  LETTER  CARRIERS'  ASSOCIATION,  1898-9. 


E.  ].  Cantwell,  Sec'y, 

Washington,  D.  C. 
Jas.  Arkison,  Ch'n  Leg.  Com., 

Fall  River,  Mass. 
J.  F.  McElroy,  Ch'n  Ex.  Bd., 

Bridgeport,  Conn. 

A.  K.  Young,  Ex.  Bd., 

Cincinnati,  O. 


Conrad  Trieber,  Vice-Pres., 

San  Francisco,  Cal. 
John  N.  Parsons,  Pres., 

New  York  City. 

W.  J.  Knott,  Ex.  Bd., 

Newark,  N.  J. 


M.  J.  Conners,  Treasurer, 

Chicago,  111. 
Chas.  R.  Raedel,  Ch'n  Civ.  Ser. 

Canton,  O. 
Francis  J.  Bourke,  Ex.  Board, 

Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
Chris  L;oagl;eocl,  Sec.  E^  Bd,, 
De.funt,  Mich.  -     »  ' 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  195 

meeting  the  following  preamble  and  resolutions 
were  unanimously  adopted: 

"Whereas,  the  Letter  Carriers  of  the  United 
States  do  feel  deeply  indebted  to  Hon.  Samuel  S. 
Cox  for  the  service  so  generously  rendered  by  him 
to  secure  the  passage  of  the  measure  limiting  the 
hours  of  duty  of  Letter  Carriers  to  eight  per  diem, 
and 

"Whereas,  our  efforts  would  have  been  futile 
were  it  not  for  the  encouragement  given  and  labor 
expended  in  his  own  sphere  and  field;  and 

"Whereas,  we  recognize  in  Hon;  Samuel  S.  Cox 
a  true  friend  to  the  cause  of  labor  and  a  gentleman 
who,  although  employed  in  the  more  important 
questions  of  State  and  Nation,  saw  the  justice  of 
our  cause  and  enlisted  in  it  for  justice's  sake; 
therefore  be  it 

"Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  the  Letter  Car 
riers  of  the  United  States  are  due,  and  the  same 
are  hereby  extended  to  Hon.  Samuel  S.  Cox  for  his 
unselfish  devotion  to  our  cause  and  the  many  sac 
rifices  made  by  him  in  our  behalf,  the  result  of 
which  has  been  to  make  our  labor  less  a  task  and 
more  a  pleasure. 

"Resolved,  That  a  copy  be  engrossed  and  pre 
sented  to  the  Hon.  Samuel  S.  Cox  of  New  York." 

When  Mr.  Cox  died,  by  none  wras  he  mourned 
more  sincerely  than  by  the  Letter  Carriers  of  the 
United  States.  Resolutions  expressive  of  their 
sorrow  were  adopted  by  the  carriers  of  all  the  prin 
cipal  cities  of  the  United  States.  The  letter  car 
riers  of  Philadelphia  resolved  that  with  loving 
hearts  in  grateful  remembrance,  we  heartily  pay 
tribute  to  his  sterling  wrorth  as  our  champion, 
friend  and  protector.  He  was  universally  be- 


196  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

loved,  respected  and  admired,  ever  ready  to  give 
his  time  and  efforts  in  our  behalf.  "Where,"  they 
asked,  "will  we  look  for  another  such  true  friend? 
Everywhere,  only  to  be  disappointed.  With  one 
accord  we  place  upon  record  this  slight  token  of 
our  loving  regard  and  devotion  for  our  dear  friend 
— the  incorruptible  statesman  who  has  passed 
away,  leaving  an  unstained  career  as  a  fitting 
memorial  of  a  life  well  spent." 

The  branch  at  Jacksonville,  Fla.,  resolved  "that 
in  the  death  of  Samuel  S.  Cox  the  nation  has  lost 
a  loved  and  honored  statesman,  humanity  a  friend, 
Christianity  a  devout  follower,  and  the  Letter  Car 
riers  of  the  United  States  a  zealous  champion,  sup 
porter,  benefactor  and  advocate.  That,  excelling 
in  all  the  walks  of  life,  we  have  known  him  best  as 
the  honest  statesman  and  the  friend  of  the  em 
ployes  of  the  nation." 

The  San  Francisco  carriers  unanimously  passed 
this  resolution:  "That  as  employes  of  the  free- 
delivery  system  of  the  United  States  postal  service 
we  shall  ever  hold  in  grateful  remembrance  the 
painstaking  research,  laborious  compilations,  elo 
quent  pleadings  for  which  on  so  many  occasions 
during  his  long  and  honorable  career  in  the  halls 
of  Congress  Mr.  Cox  so  ably  assisted  in  securing 
for  ourselves  and  our  fellow  employes  of  the  ser 
vice  mentioned  the  just  provisions  which  frorj. 
time  to  time  have  been  accorded  to  us  by  Congres 
sional  enactments."  Besides  these,  the  Golden 
Gate  Carriers  addressed  a  personal  letter  to  the 
widow  showing  their  appreciation  of  his  "tireless 
advocacy"  of  their  rights  in  Congress,  and  their 
sorrow  at  the  loss  of  their  "most  zealous  friend 
and  advocate." 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX.  107 

Memphis,  Tennesee,  joined  in  the  procession  of 
mourners,  declaring  in  the  resolutions  of  its  Let 
ter  Carriers  that  "the  council  of  the  nation  loses 
one  of  its  brightest  lights,  America  one  of  her  nob 
lest  sons  and  grandest  statesmen,  and  the  laborers, 
and  especially  the  Letter  Carriers,  a  friend  of  in 
estimable  worth,"  and  that  the  letter  carriers  of 
Memphis  "in  mourning  the  loss  of  a  friend  so  great 
and  true  do  share  in  the  bereavement  of  the  nation 
and  his  family." 

The  Boston  carriers  put  on  record  their  deep  sor 
row  at  "the  loss  of  one  who  had  endeared  himself 
to  us  by  his  kind,  able,  and  willing  assistance  at 
all  times,"  and  one  who  "was  ever  the  champion 
of  our  cause."  Hardly  a  branch  of  the  National 
Letter  Carriers  Association  was  too  small  or  too 
remote  to  join  in  the  acclaim  of  testimony  to  the 
services  of  the  "Letter  Carriers  Friend."  The  an 
nual  decoration  of  his  grave  in  Greenwood  by 
these  grateful  servants  of  the  public,  attests  that 
their  gratitude  is  not  evanescent  or  merely  spas 
modic,  but  is  as  enduring  as  the  memory  of  his 
services  in  their  behalf. 

The  crowning  proof  of  the  grateful  apprecia 
tion  of  the  Letter  Carriers  of  the  United  States, 
towards  their  benefactor,  stands  in  Astor  Place, 
in  the  midst  of  the  busy  life  of  the  metropolis.  It 
is  a  bronze  statue.  The  figure  is  of  heroic  propor 
tions,  and  represents  Mr.  Cox  in  the  attitude  of 
addressing  the  House.  His  right  hand  is  extend 
ed,  while  his  left  is  at  his  side.  The  statue,  eight 
feet  high,  rests  on  a  pedestal  of  polished  granite, 
twelve  feet  high.  It  cost  $10,000,  every  dollar  of 
which  was  the  voluntary  contribution  of  the  Let 
ter  Carriers  of  the  United  States.  The  pedestal 
bears  this  inscription: 


198  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

"Samuel  Sullivan  Cox, 

The  Letter  Carriers'  Friend. 

Erected  in  grateful  and  loving  memory  of  his  ser 

vices  in  Congress  by  the  Letter  Carriers  of 

New  York,  his  home,  and  of  the  United 

States,  his  country,  July  4th,  1891." 

The  movement  for  the  erection  of  a  suitable 
monument  to  testify  to  the  gratitude  of  the  Letter 
Carriers  of  the  United  States  for  Mr.  Cox  was 
started  the  day  following  his  death.  A  special 
meeting  of  the  New  York  Letter  Carriers'  associa 
tion  held  September  11,  1889,  after  a  preamble  de 
claring  that  "the  Letter  Carriers  of  the  United 
States  feel  that  they  have  lost  a  friend  who  de 
voted  his  greatest  efforts  in  their  interest  and  wel 
fare  and  one  who  we  feel  will  never  be  replaced," 
adopted  this  resolution: 

"Resolved,  That  a  committee  of  the  New  York 
Letter  Carriers'  Association  be  authorized  to  con 
fer  with  the  Letter  Carriers  of  the  United  States, 
for  the  purpose  of  raising  a  subscription  for  a  suit 
able  monument  to  be  placed  over  the  remains  of 
the  devoted  friend  of  the  Letter  Carriers  of  the 
United  States." 

In  the  end  the  erection  of  a  statue  in  Astor 
Place  was  decided  upon.  The  dedication  of  this 
statue,  on  the  anniversary  of  the  nation's  inde 
pendence,  was  an  imposing  ceremony.  Delega 
tions  of  Letter  Carriers  came  for  the  purpose,  from 
far  and  near,  even  the  Pacific  Coast  and  the  Gulf 
States  being  represented.  Two  thousand  carriers 
turned  out  from  New  York  and  Brooklyn  alone. 
Charles  P.  Kelly,  President  of  the  Carriers'  Asso 
ciation,  New  York,  was  grand  marshal  of  the  pro 
cession.  George  H.  Newson,  chairman  of  the 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  199 

Btatue  committee,  made  the  speech  of  presentation 
to  the  city,  and  President  Arnold  of  the  Board  of 
Aldermen,  received  it  in  the  city's  behalf.  The 
orator  of  the  occasion  was  Gen.  Thomas  Ewing, 
formerly  of  Ohio,  an  associate  of  Mr.  Cox  in  Con 
gress  and  the  friend  of  his  earlier  years.  In  the 
course  of  his  eloquent  tribute,  Mr.  Ewing  said: 

"Letter  Carriers  of  the  United  States:  Well  may 
you  commemorate  his  public  services.  The  work 
he  did  for  you  would  not  have  been  done  by  an 
other.  When  he  espoused  your  cause  in  Congress 
you  had  no  national  organization  through  which 
to  command  public  respect,  and  there  were  not 
enough  of  you  in  any  one  constituency  to  give  you 
any  other  champion  in  Congress  than  him  whose 
support  went  out  to  you  without  a  thought  as  to 
your  numbers  or  his  own  interest.  But  for  his 
unselfish  sympathy  and  zeal  you  would  have  no 
redress  of  hardships  and  grievances,  but  would 
have  gone  on  to  this  day  tramping  your  weary 
rounds  from  daylight  to  dark,  through  winter's 
cold  and  summer's  heat,  underpaid  and  over 
worked." 

Recognition  of  Mr.  Cox's  effective  aid  to  the  Let 
ter  Carriers'  has  been  freely  and  on  every  suitable 
occasion  made  by  them.  And  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  in  June,  1898,  graceful  acknowl 
edgment  thereof  was  made  by  Mr.  Cox's  successor 
in  these  words : 

"Mr.  Bradley — Mr.  Chairman — Representing  as 
I  do  a  district  which  was  formerly  represented  by 
one  of  the  ablest  men  that  ever  graced  the  halls  of 
Congress,  a  man  to  whom  the  Letter  Carrier  was 
the  darling  of  his  heart,  and  who  did  more  to  build 
up  the  postal  service  than  any  other  one  man  in 


200  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

the  United  States,  the  late  Samuel  S.  Cox,  I  feel 
that  I  would  be  an  unworthy  successor  of  his  if  I 
failed  in  my  humble  way  to  do  what  I  could  to  fur 
ther  the  work  which  he  did  so  much  to  forward." 

Mr.  Cox's  last  speech  made  in  Congress,  in  Feb 
ruary,  1889,  was  in  behalf  of  the  postoffice  clerks, 
to  extend  to  them  the  benefits  already  enjoyed  by 
the  carriers,  as  to  classification  and  fixed  salaries. 

"Mr.  Chairman,"  he  said,  "in  opening  his 
speech,  "I  have  the  honor  and  the  pleasure  to  take, 
perhaps,  an  unusual  interest  in  the  postoffice  de 
partment.  That  interest  has  been  special,  and  on 
certain  lines  it  is  somewhat  limited.  The  delivery 
system  has  long  been  associated  with  my  duties 
here,  and,  I  may  say,  even  my  anxieties  abroad. 
But  the  Letter  Carriers  have  had  not  an  unreason 
able,  on  the  contrary,  quite  a  kindly,  provision 
made  for  them  as  to  the  increase  of  their  pay,  their 
vacation,  their  recreation,  and  their  hours  of  ser 
vice.  But  how  superbly  have  they  recompensed 
the  government  for  its  benf actions!  As  the  facts 
justify  our  pride  over  my  previous  efforts  in  their 
behalf,  may  I  be  permitted  to  present  now  and 
here  the  last  results  of  this  free  delivery  or  letter 
carrier  service?  Facts  furnish  the  vindication  of 
this  system.  They  simply  astound  the  mind  as 
well  as  please  the  heart."  The  work  w^hich  would 
have  placed  the  Postoffice  Clerks  on  the  same 
plane  of  protection  as  the  carriers,  he  did  not  live 
to  finish.  Nor  does  the  flight  of  years  in  anywise 
lessen  the  Letter  Carriers'  grateful  appreciation  of 
the  valued  services  of  their  deceased  benf actor. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 


FATHER  OF  THE  LIFE-SAVING  SERVICE. 

Of  no  achievement  to  which  he  could  look  back 
at  the  close  of  his  legislative  service  was  Mr.  Cox 
more  proud  than  of  the  creation  by  Federal  statute 
of  the  Life  Saving  Service.  This  measure  was  not 
only  introduced  into  Congress  by  him,  but  it  was 
pressed  with  tireless  zeal,  until  he  had  the  trium 
phant  satisfaction  of  witnessing  its  passage  and 
the  service  duly  established. 

A  Chicago  paper,  after  his  death,  characterized 
the  Life  Saving  Service  "a  grand  monument  to  his 
wisdom  and  humanity."  In  that  very  year,  the 
same  authority  stated  "over  3,950  persons  were 
rescued  and  ships  and  cargoes  valued  at  $7,966,660 
saved"  through  this  service.  "Ages  hence,"  it  added 
US.  S.  Cox.  will  be  remembered  by  those  who  go 
down  to  sea  in  shiips  and  are  rescued  from  the 
treacherous  waves  by  the  crews  of  life  boats."  Mr. 
Cox,  in  a  speech  in  1878,  in  the  House,  attributed 
the  inspiration  of  his  efforts  in  this  direction  to  a 
storm  in  the  Scilly  Isles,  in  the  winter  of  1868, 
when  a  great  steamer  barely  escaped  shipwreck. 
"It  was,"  he  said  "the  worst  tempest  in  thirty 
years  upon  that  coast.  When  we  arrived  in  port, 
the  day  after  the  peril,  the  English  journals  were 
full  of  the  glorious  exploits,  by  rocket  and  signal 


202  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

and  coast  guard  and  mortar  and  life  boat.  I  won 
dered,  if  so  much  could  be  done  in  England,  with 
her  forty-five  hundred  miles  of  coast  line,  why 
should  not  our  country,  with  double  that  number 
of  miles,  have  a  similarly  efficient  service.   It  was 
this  that  led  me  to  propose  what  the  superinten 
dent  of  the  service  called  the  efficient  beginning 
of  the  patrol  of  the  Jersey  coast.    Since  that  time 
how  much  has  been  done  for  the  well  being  and 
rescue  of  imperiled  lives!   How  much  of  comfort 
and  joy    has   been   vouchsafed   to    families    and 
friends  of  the  beneficiaries  of  that  mercy  which 
droppeth  as  the  gentle  rains  from  heaven  in  this 
warm-hearted  legisi  xtion,  blessing  and  blessed." 
The  close  of  his  speech  was  as  follows: 
"Mr.  Speaker:  I  have  spent  the  best  part  of  my 
life  in  this  public  service.  Most  of  it  has  been  like 
writing  in   water.    The   reminiscences   of   party 
wrangling  and  political  strife  seem  to  me  like  neb 
ulae  of  the  past,  without  form  and  almost  void. 
But  what  little  I  have  accomplished  in  connection 
with  this  Life   Saving    Service   is   compensation 
sweeter  than  honey  in  the  honeycomb.  It  is  its  own 
exceeding  great  reward.    It  speaks  to  me  in  the 
voices  of  the  rescued;  aye,  in  tears  of  speechless 
feeling;  speaks  of  resurrection  from  death— 
In  spite  of  wreck  and  tempest's  roar, 
In  spite  of  false  lights  on  the  shore; 
speaks  of  a  faith  triumphant  over  all  fears  in  the 
better  elements  of  our  human  nature.     It  sounds 
like  the  undulations  of  the  Sabbath  bell,  ringing  in 
peace  and  felicity.    It  comes  to  me  in  the  words  of 
Him  who,  regardless  of  His  own  life,  gave  it  freely 
that  others  might  be  saved. 

"Humanitv  and  civilization  should  walk  white- 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  203 

handed  along  with  government.  They  strengthen 
and  save  society.  In  the  perils  which  environ  our 
country,  from  passion  and  prejudice,  from  old  ani 
mosities  and  new  irritations,  let  us  do  good  deeds 
— pray  hopefully  that  our  vessel  of  state  be  free 
from  leakage,  collision,  wreck  and  loss.  Send  out 
the  life-boat;  fire  the  line  over  the  imperiled  ves 
sel  ;  free  the  hawser  for  the  life-car,  and  then  with 
stout  hearts  and  thankful  souls  lift  up  our  prayer 
to  Him  who  holds  the  sea  in  the  hollow  of  His 
hand." 

The  effect  of  this  eloquent  appeal  wras  electric. 
Almost  immediately  the  bill  passed  the  House,  and 
without  one  dissenting  vote. 

The  speech  attracted  wide  attention  and  elicited 
everywhere  the  highest  encomiums.  At  a  meeting 
of  the  Board  of  Aldermen  of  the  City  of  New  York 
held  June  11, 1878,  the  following  preamble  and  res 
olution  offered  by  Alderman  Morris  were  adopted: 

"Whereas,  Hon.  Samuel  S.  Cox,  one  of  the  repre 
sentatives  in  Congress  from  this  city,  has  delivered 
an  effective  and  patriotic  speech  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  in  behalf  of  humanity  and  the  suf 
fering;  and  as  he  has  given  almost  his  whole  life 
to  assist  in  perfecting  the  Life  Saving  System  and 
to  establish  its  workings  on  our  coast,  from  Maine 
to  California,  by  which  thousands  of  lives  and  mill 
ions  of  dollars  have  been  saved  to  all  nationalities. 
Therefore  be  it 

"Resolved,  That  the  Board  of  Aldermen  of  the 
City  of  New  York  tender  to  the  Hon.  Samuel  S. 
Cox  and  to  all  members  of  Congress  and  other  per 
sons  conected  in  any  way  with  this  life  saving  and 
humane  institution,  their  sincere  and  heartfelt 


204  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

thanks,  not  unmindful  of  the  assistance  given  to 
it  by  the  press  of  the  country.  And  be  it  further 

"Keeolved,  That  the  Clerk  of  this  Board  be  au 
thorized  and  directed  to  have  this  engrossed  and 
forwarded  to  the  Hon.  Samuel  S.  Cox. 
Adopted  by  the  Board  of  Aldermen,  June  llth, 

1878. 
Approved  by  the  Mayor,  June  17th,  1878. 

Francis  J.  Twoomey, 
Clerk  Common  Council." 

In  Congress  after  Congress  the  onslaught  upon 
the  Life  Saving  Service,  assuming  one  guise  or  an 
other,  was  renewed,  and  as  often  successfully  met 
by  its  sturdy  champion.  Some  of  the  most  eloquent 
appeals  ever  heard  on  the  floor  of  Congress  were 
made  by  Mr.  Cox  on  these  occasions.  The  following 
extracts  must  suffice  as  examples: 

[From  a  speech  in  the  House,  1878  ] 

"This  service  is,  in  a  high  sense,  divinely  beauti 
ful.  Although  it  is  limited  to  this  country  of  ours, 
yet  its  benefaction  knows  no  boundary,  and  its 
example  is  an  incentive  to  the  benevolent  of  all 
lands.  It  rescues  the  people  of  all  nationalities. 
No  wonder  that  the  nations  are  following  our  ex 
ample. 

"Denmark  is  seeking  to  introduce  our  system 
amidst  her  belts,  coasts,  and  isles.  No  wonder 
that  Holland — the  child  of  the  sea — is  asking  for 
our  instructions,  signals,  and  paraphernalia  for 
life-saving.  If  I  may  be  allowed  to  say  it,  the 
Turkish  and  Russian  maritime  people  are  endeav 
oring  to  adapt  our  system  to  the  increasing  com 
merce  of  the  Black  Sea,  at  the  mouth  of  the  his 
toric  Bosphorus.  Two  thousand  years  ago — after 
Jason  had  navigated  to  Colchis  for  the  golden 
fleece — temples  were  built  to  the  gods  of  Greece 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  205 

at  the  perilous  mouth  of  these  classic  waters.  At 
their  altars  the  votive  offerings  of  sailors  were 
laid,  because  of  the  tempestuous  character  of  that 
inland  sea.  I  have  recently  seen  the  ruins  of 
these  temples  that  were  dedicated  to  Jupiter, 
Neptune  and  other  heathen  gods,  to  whom  invoca 
tions  were  made  to  save  the  adventurous  naviga 
tor  from  disaster  and  death. 

"Whereas,  Mr.  Speaker — these  ancient  mariners 
appealed  to  Jupiter  and  Neptune — we  appeal  to 
practical  mechanics.  We  invoke  the  genius  of 
chemistry,  with  its  colored  signals,  its  line,  car, 
buoy,  powder  and  howitzer.  We  add  to  electric 
ity  and  steam  the  dauntless  heroism  of  the  surf- 
man.  Odessa  and  Constantinople,  by  voluntary 
effort  are  copying  our  example  in  thus  rescuing 
the  imperiled. 

"Yet,  sir,  in  conclusion,  there  is  a  higher  sanc 
tion  than  the  Constitution  or  humanity.  It  is  that 
of  Him  who  stilled  the  waves  of  Galilee  to  save 
imperiled  human  life.  It  is  said  that  in  the  beauty 
of  the  lilies  Christ  was  born  across  the  sea,  and 
in  the  glory  of  his  bosom  he  transfigured  you  and 
me.  He  died  to  make  men  holy,  and  for  the  salva 
tion  of  human  souls  in  desperate  shipwrecks 
through  sins.  W^e  may  not  imitate  his  example, 
here,  sir,  except  afar  off,  but,  by  our  voice  and 
vote,  w^e  may  do  something  by  this  measure  to 
throw  around  our  legislation  a  divine  aureola 
and  save  human  life,  so  precious  to  Him  wTho  gave 
His  life  to  save  the  lives  of  others.  (Applause.) 

"Ah!  sir;  there  is  a  pathetic  poetry  belonging  to 
the  sea,  which  is  all  too  sad  for  the  ordinary  prose 
of  human  composition.  The  sea  has  been  the 
theme  of  praise  by  many  writers;  their  vivid  de- 


206  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

scriptions  remain  in  the  memory.  They  have  ap 
plauded  its  services  as  the  great  purveyor  of  the 
world's  commodities,  for  the  diversity  of  food 
which  it  yields,  and,  most  of  all,  for  the  'wonders 
of  the  Lord  in  the  deep/  But  no  pen  has  ever  done 
justice  to  the  grandeur  of  its  aspect,  even  in  calm, 
or  to  the  might  of  its  tempests  in  storm.  It  is 
said  that  it  entertains  the  sun  with  vapors,  the 
moon  with  obsequiousness,  the  stars  with  a  mirror 
the  sky  with  clouds,  the  air  with  ternperateness, 
the  soil  with  subtileness,  the  rivers  with  tides,  the 
hills  with  moisture,  and  the  valleys  with  fertility. 
It  gives  meditation  to  the  mind,  and  the  world  to 
the  world,  all  parts  thereof  to  each  part,  by  the  art 
of  arts — navigation.  Still,  above  all  is  that  rest 
less,  overwhelming  power,  in  the  wild  tumult  of 
its  wrath,  when  its  crested  waves  make  a  compact 
with  the  clouds  and  the  winds,  the  thunder  and  the 
thunderbolt,  and  sweep  on  in  their  dread  alliance. 
And  yet,  to  sustain  the  art  of  navigation,  there  is 
another  art,  called  into  being  by  the  genius  of  man, 
which  dares  contend  against  the  wild,  insatiable, 
and  reckless  Saturnalia  of  the  sea.  Oliver  Wen 
dell  Holmes  compares  the  sea  with  the  mountains, 
to  the  great  disadvantage  of  the  sea.  He  loves — 
as  who  does  not — the  mountains,  where  the  least 
of  things  seem  infinite;  but  the  sea  is  to  him  a  huge 
feline,  licking  your  feet,  purring  at  times  pleas 
antly,  but  ready  to  crack  your  bones  and  eat  you 
for  all  that,  and  then  wipe  the  crimsoned  foam 
from  its  jaws  as  if  nothing  had  happened.  The 
sea  had  for  him  a  fascinating,  treacherous  intelli 
gence,  stretching  out  its  shining  length,  and  by 
and  by  lashing  itself  into  rage,  showing  its  white 
teeth,  and  ready  to  spring  at  the  bars  while  howl- 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  207 

ing  the  cry  of  its  mad  fury!  That  furious  wild  ani 
mal,  the  arts  of  man  has  caged  and  bound!  Before 
the  genius  of  man  the  wildest  waves  become  calm. 
Parent  and  child,  wrife  and  husband,  brother  and 
sister  and  lover,  who  are  tempest-tossed  and 
stranded,  are  rescued  from  the  washing  and  wast 
ing  element,  which  is  subdued  and  enchanted  by 
human  bravery.  As  Byron  has  sung,  "Man  has 
wantoned  with  its  breakers,  and  that  which  was 
a  terror  becomes  a  pleasing  fear."  Our  noble 
crews  defying  its  billows,  have  laid  their  hands 
upon  its  mane  and  tamed  it  to  their  will.  In  the 
old  days  it  was  said  that  it  was  beautiful  to  die 
for  one's  country.  Under  the  inspiration  of  mar 
tial  music  and  other  martial  exercises  patriotic 
men  rush  to  the  conflict  and  die.  Nations  vote 
pensions  and  decorations  to  the  hero  who  first 
plants  a  flag  on  a  parapet  or  rescues  it  from  an 
enemy.  How  much  nobler  to  decorate  and  pen 
sion  the  man  who,  seeing  one  of  his  own  kind, 
though  a  stranger,  in  the  struggle  and  despair  of 
death,  plunges  into  the  very  jaws  of  the  unseen 
future  amidst  darkness  and  danger  to  reclaim  his 
fellow-being  from  a  watery  grave.  Who  can 
measure  the  wonderful  grace  of  that  government 
which  not  only  provides  for  the  rescue  of  the  vic 
tims  and  the  stranded  ships  from  the  storm,  but 
gives  consolation  to  those  who,  as  Jeremy  Taylor 
well  says,  have  not  yet  suffered  shipwreck,  but 
who  amidst  the  dark  night,  an  ill  guide,  and  a 
boisterous  sea,  and  broken  cable,  and  hard  rock, 
and  a  rough  wind,  may  be  dashed  in  pieces  with 
the  fortunes  of  a  whole  family,  and  they  that  shall 
weep  loudest  for  the  accident  have  not  yet  entered 
into  the  storm?  We  may  construct  upon  our 


208  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

shore  the  image  of  Liberty  holding  up  its  torch  to 
enlighten  the  world;  we  may  allure  the  immigrant 
to  our  country  by  this  lustrous  imagery  at  the  har 
bor  of  our  great  metropolis;  but  no  such  light, 
even  though  dazzling  with  its  electric  brilliancy, 
will  attract  the  attention  of  the  good  men  of  our 
kind  like  the  serene  and  blessed  illumination  that 
radiates  from  our  life-saving  statute  and  pro 
claims  to  all  the  w^orld — to  men  of  every  condition, 
race  and  nationality — that  when  overcome  by  the 
terrific  disasters  of  the  sea,  they  have  at  every  per 
ilous  point  upon  our  coast  the  heroic  courage  of 
men  who  are  equipped  and  ready  to  leap  into  the 
surf,  to  launch  their  boats  through  its  'league-long 
rollers/  to  breast  the  tempest  in  its  angry  howling, 
and  to  rescue  those  who  are  hanging  upon  the  vast 
abyss  and  about  to  be  swallowed  by  the  angry 
waters.  It  is  said  in  the  New  Testament  that  a 
man  will  give  his  life  for  his  friend.  But  these 
men,  almost  without  pay,  with  a  lion-hearted  cour 
age  far  excelling  that  of  the  soldier  under  the  im 
pulse  of  patriotic  devotion — are  ready  in  the  pur 
suit  of  their  high  duty  to  glorify  our  human  nature 
by  laying  down  their  lives,  if  need  be,  for  those — 
even  those  who  are  aliens  and  strangers." 

[Prom  a  speech.  1888.] 

"May  I  not,  then,  take  pardonable  pride  in  the 
establishment  and  progress  of  this  system,  which 
has  no  peer  in  the  world  for  its  effective  work  and 
no  paragon  in  the  history  of  nations  for  its  inspi 
ration?  I  sometimes  think,  Mr.  Speaker,  that  I 
have,  through  the  mercy  of  God,  more  than  my 
compensation  for  the  little  I  have  done  in  the  pro 
motion  of  this  service.  When  struggling  for  life 
one  year  ago,  in  this  city,  when  the  little  will 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  209 

power  which  was  remaining  was  ready  to  succumb 
before  the  ravages  of  disease  and  the  agony  of 
pain,  and  when  friends  had  almost  given  up  my 
surviving,  I  cast  my  eyes  upon  two  pictures  at 
either  side  of  my  sick  bed. 

"One  was  that  of  the  life-boat  going  out  through 
the  storm  to  the  rescue  of  a  ship  wrecked  upon  a 
rock-bound  coast,  while  there  on  the  shore  the  rel 
atives  of  the  surfmen  stand  speechless  with  anx 
iety  as  to  the  fate  of  the  brave  men  who  hazard  all 
for  the  rescue.  The  other  picture  is  that  of  the 
same  life-boat  coming  in.  It  is  laden  with  its 
precious  freight.  The  howling  storm,  the  chime 
of  the  breakers,  and  the  dark  clouds  around  the 
beetling  cliffs;  the  cry  goes  up  from  thankful 
hearts,  'All  safe;  all  well.' 

"In  my  poor  sick  fancy  I  grasped  the  tiller  of 
the  life-boat.  I  clung  to  it  with  the  tenacity  that 
overcame  the  sinking  heart  of  an  emaciated  body. 
The  good  doctor,  when  I  related  to  him  the  inci 
dent  and  the  source,  and  how  it  had  inspired  me 
with  a  fresh  hope  and  a  new  life,  gave  me  smiling 
asurance  that  I  might  still  survive  as  a  rescued 
man  to  plead  for  the  Life-Saving  Service  in  many 
Congresses. 

"I  have  said,  Mr.  Speaker,  that  we  have  one 
beautiful  statute  which  as  a  sacred  halo  around 
it.  It  makes  a  sunshine  in  the  shadow  of  our 
selfish,  sectional,  and  patriotic  codes  and  laws.  It 
is  that  which  preserves  human  life.  It  is  not 
merely  a  sentimental  humanity,  but  a  real  bene 
faction.  Like  the  orange  tree,  it  bears  fruit  and 
flowers  at  the  same  time.  * 

"It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say,  in  view  of  its  ob 
ject,  that  it  gives  us  a  glimpse,  though  dim,  of  the 


210  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

golden  age.  The  world's  heart  clings  to  it  as  if 
it  were  a  memory  of  a  past  paradise  or  the  home 
of  a  paradise  regained.  The  sea  itself  plays  its 
mighty  minstrelsy  in  its  honor.  * 

Life  is  precious  because  its  loss  can  not  be  repair 
ed.  Jeremy  Taylor  has  told  us  that  while  our 
senses  are  double  there  is  but  one  death,  but 
once  only  to  be  acted,  and  that  in  an  instant,  and 
upon  that  instant  all  eternity  depends.  Other 
losses  may  be  recompensed  by  gains,  but  loss  by 
death  never.  No  one  is  so  lordly  or  powerful  as  to 
stay  this  irreparable  loss.  Every  day  puts  us  in 
peril;  while  we  think  we  die.  What  care  and  es 
teem  can  equal  the  eternal  weight  of  human  life? 
Can  any  legislation  be  too  ample  or  adequate  for 
its  production?" 

In  grateful  recognition  of  his  devotion  to  the  up 
building  of  the  Life  Saving  Service,  the  members 
of  that  service  presented  to  his  widow,  a  few 
months  after  his  death,  a  memorial  vase.  The  pre- 
sentationwas  made  with  appropriate  ceremony  at 
Mrs.  Cox's  home  in  Washington,  in  the  presence  of 
a  notable  gathering  of  relatives  and  friends,  the 
General  Superintendent,  Sumner  I.  Kimball,  rep 
resenting  the  Service.  "The  vase,"  as  described  in 
one  of  the  publications  of  the  day,  "is  two  feet  in 
height,  two  feet  one  inch  in  circumference,  and 
weighs  one  hundred  twenty-five  ounces.  On  the 
front  of  the  vase  is  a  scene  representing  the  life- 
savers  engaged  in  rescuing  people  from  a  stranded 
vessel  by  means  of  the  breeches  buoy.  Some  dis 
tance  out,  where  the  sea  rises  in  mountains,  is  the 
wrecked  vessel,  with  torn  sails  and  shattered  spars. 
At  various  points  along  the  beach  life-savers  are 


VASE  PRESENTED  TO  MRS.  COX  BY  LIFE-SAVING  SERVICE. 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  211 

seen  lifting  bodies  from  the  heavy  surf  and  car 
rying  them  ashore.  In  direct  contrast  with  this 
wild  scene  is  the  ornamentation  that  circles  the 
body  of  the  vase.  This  consists  of  a  cable  net  in 
which  are  caught  starfish,  seaweed  and  odd-ap 
pearing  plants  and  shells  that  are  known  to  in 
habit  the  depths  of  the  ocean.  A  ledge  formed  by 
a  ship's  chain  supports  this  net,  while  above  is  a 
profile  of  Mr.  Cox  circled  with  laurel  against  a 
background  of  sea  coral.  A  life  buoy  crossed  with 
a  boathook  and  oar  rests  at  the  top.  The  handles 
at  the  sides  are  composed  of  two  beautifully 
formed  mermaids,  who,  with  bowed  heads  and 
curved  bodies,  hold  in  their  upraised  hands  sea 
plants  that  grow  from  the  side  of  the  top.  The  in 
scription  is  as  follows: 

THIS  MEMORIAL  VASE 


IS  PRESENTED  TO 


MRS.    SAMUEL    S.    COX. 


BY   THE   MEMBERS  OF 

THEJLIFE-SAVING  SERVICE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

IN'GRATEFUL  REMEMBRANCE  OF  THE  TIRELESS  AND   SUCCESSFUL 
EFFORTS  OF  HER  DISTINGUISHED   HUSBAND, 

THE  HONORABLE   SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX, 


TO'  PROMOTE  THE   INTERESTS   AND    ADVANCE    THE  EFFICIENCY  AND    GLORY 
OF  THE  LIFE-SAVING   SERVICE. 


He  was  its  early  and  constant  friend; 
Its  earnest  and  eloquent  advocate; 
Its  fearless  and  faithful  champion. 


212  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

General  Superintendent  Kiinball,  in  his  presen 
tation  address  recalled  the  history  of  the  Life-Sav 
ing  Service.  "The  system,"  he  said,  "was  initiated 
in  1871,  but  the  way  was  prepared  in  1870  when  an 
amendment  to  an  appropriation  bill  to  provide  for 
the  employment  of  crews  of  surfmen  at  the  sta 
tions  on  the  New  Jersey  coast  for  the  winter 
months  having  been  defeated,  Mr.  Cox,  after  a 
sharp  and  persistent  contest,  secured  the  passage 
of  a  substitute  authorizing  their  employment  at 
every  alternate  station.  This  was  probably  the  first 
time  his  attention  had  been  attracted  to  the  idea 
of  rescuing  the  shipwrecked  by  organized  effort 
from  the  shore,  and  from  that  hour  he  became  its 
devoted  adherent  and  champion. 

"It  opened  the  door  to  the  subsequent  employ 
ment  of  crews  at  all  the  stations,  and  only  through 
this  door  lay  directly  the  way  to  the  establishment 
of  the  present  organization.  As  Mr.  Cox  antici 
pated,  the  very  defects  of  the  provision  hastened 
and  aided  the  advance.  The  next  appropriation 
bill  providing  for  sundry  civil  expenses  of  the 
government,  approved  April  20  ,1871,  appropriated 
a  sufficient  amount  to  permit  the  construction  of 
several  additional  stations  and  to  replenish  the 
equipments  of  the  old  ones',  and  authorized  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  employ  crews  at  such 
stations  as  he  might  deem  necessary.  He  caused 
their  employment  at  all.  This  permitted,  upon 
the  limited  stretch  of  coast  to  which  the  stations 
were  confined,  the  initiation  of  a  plan  of  organiza 
tion  which  was  the  prototype  of  the  system  that 
to-day  extends  over  the  entire  coast  of  the  country. 
The  result  that  followed  was  so  immediate  and 
striking  as  to  arrest  general  attention.  At  the  close 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX.  213 

of  the  season  it  was  found  that  not  a  life  had  been 
lost  witliin  the  field  of  this  guardianship." 

But  the  struggle  was  not  over.  The  opposition 
to  apropriations  for  the  Life  Saving  Service  was  re 
newed  Congress  after  Congress,  originating  gener 
ally  with  members  representing  districts  far  re 
mote  from  the  seacoast.  It  was  seemingly  a  "bat 
tle  once  begun,  never  done."  Mr.  Cox  was  at  the 
front  of  every  battle  and  invariably  saved  the  day 
for  the  life  savers.  In  the  Forty-fifth  Congress  he 
secured  his  most  signal  victory.  It  was  proposed  to 
transfer  the  service  from  the  treasury  to  the  naval 
control.  A  long  and  desperate  contest  ensued, 
Mr.  Cox  marshaling  the  forces  of  the  opposition 
to  the  proposed  change,  wrhich  he  believed  to  be 
fraught  with  infinite  peril  to  the  system.  "The 
closing  days  of  the  session/'  said  Superintendent 
Kimball,"  brought  a  signal  victory  for  the  service, 
and  witnessed  one  of  the  most  notable  triumphs 
for  Mr.  Cox  that  has  ever  marked  the  annals  of 
Congress.  It  was  in  the  final  encounter  of  this 
protracted  struggle  that  he  made  that  memorable 
speech  that  must  always  be  accounted  the  ablest  of 
all  the  great  speeches  that  distinguished  his  long 
and  brilliant  career.  Its  effect  upon  the  auditors 
was  magical  and  a  scene  ensued  that  has  rarely  if 
ever  been  paralleled  in  Congress.  "  A  member  who 
was  present  thus  describes  the  scene: 

"A  number  of  speeches  had  been  made;  his  wa& 
the  last.  No  especial  interest  was  manifested  in 
the  subject;  nothing  to  distinguish  it  from  the  or 
dinary  discussions  that  daily  take  place  in  the 
House.  It  was  in  the  morning  after  the  routine 
business  had  been  disposed  of  that  Mr.  Cox  arose. 
The  attention  of  members  was  gradually  arrested. 


214  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

The  calling  of  pages  by  the  clapping  of  hands  grew 
less  frequent  as  he  proceeded.  In  a  short  time  the 
members  sat  enchained  by  the  eloquence  of  his  ad 
dress.  Now  and  then  there  was  applause,  but  when 
he  stopped  a  profound  silence  pervaded  the 
House. 

"In  a  moment  or  two  it  was  broken  by  a  member 
near  by  extending  his  congratulations  to  him.  He 
was  quickly  followed  by  another;  then  two  or  three 
pressed  forward  to  take  him  by  the  hand;  when 
almost  simultaneously  a  score  or  more  approached 
him,  and  in  less  time  than  I  can  describe  it  every 
member  was  on  his  way  up  the  aisle  towards  him 
to  extend  his  congratulations.  No  attempt  was 
made  to  continue  business.  The  speaker  of  the 
House  acquiesced  in  the  temporary  interruption 
and  only  called  the  members  to  order  when  they 
had  resumed  their  seats.  I  sat  immediately  oppo 
site  to  him  during  the  delivery  of  the  speech  and 
was  the  last  member  to  grasp  him  by  the  hand.  As 
I  did  so  I  saw  that  he  had  been  moved  to  tears 
and  not  a  word  passed  between  us.  I  doubt  very 
much  whether,  in  the  whole  history  of  this  body, 
any  speech  had  such  an  instantaneous  effect.  It 
was  a  high  tribute  to  the  orator.  Aye,  it  was 
more.  It  was  a  homage  paid  to  his  subject.  He 
struck  the  key-note  of  humanity,  and  all  within  its 
sound  responded  to  its  spell." 

"Probably,"  said  Superintendent  Kimball,  "no 
speech  ever  made  in  the  House  produced  so  con 
spicuous  a  change  of  sentiment  upon  a  pending 
question.  The  bill  passed  without  a  dissenting 
voice.  The  chosen  leader  of  the  opposition,  a  mem 
ber  distinguished  for  his  eloquence  and  ability, 
had  entered  the  hall  before  the  discussion  began 


SUMNER  I.  KIMBALL. 
Superintendent  of  Life  Saving  Service. 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  215 

with  books  and  documents  which  he  intended  to 
use  in  closing  the  debate  for  his  side.  When  he  saw 
the  whole  House  file  up  the  aisle  to  congratulate 
his  antagonist  he  joined  the  throng,  and  upon 
reaching  him  said:  'Mr.  Cox,  you  have  anticipated 
and  answered  every  point  I  expected  to  make;  you 
have  left  me  nothing  to  say.' 

"Is  it  any  wonder,"  asked  Superintendent  Kim- 
ball,  "that  when  the  announcement  of  his  death 
flashed  over  the  land,  and  was  repeated  by  tele 
phone  from  station  to  station,  a  gloom  fell  upon 
the  coast  from  Maine  to  Texas  on  the  Atlantic, 
and  from  Washington  to  the  southern  boundary 
of  California  on  the  Pacific,  and  all  around  the 
shores  of  the  great  inland  lakes,  such  as  had  never 
overshadowed  it  before?" 

Senator  William  P.  Frye,  of  Maine,  chairman  of 
the  Senate  committee  on  Commerce,  followed  Su 
perintendent  Kimball,  in  an  eloquent  tribute,  of 
which  the  following  is  a  part: 

"I  knew  Mr.  Cox  well;  served  with  him  in  the 
House  ten  years;  was  honored  with  his  friendship, 
and  admired  him  intensely.  He  was  a  remarkable 
man.  Michael  Angelo,  for  more  than  four  hundred 
years,  has  stood  out  in  bold  relief — painter,  sculp 
tor,  architect,  poet,  and  engineer.  Mr.  Cox  was  as 
many  sided  as  he,  not  standing,  it  may  be,  so  far 
above  his  fellows,  but  neither  ordinary  nor  com 
monplace  in  any  of  the  elements  of  his  greatness. 
He  was  an  orator,  capable  of  moving  to  laughter 
or  to  tears.  He  could  subdue  the  stormy  House  to 
quietness  and  make  its  members  listeners.  His 
imagination  occasionally  inspired  him  to  wonder 
ful  flights  of  eloquence  skyward,  but  he  could,  too, 
when  it  served  his  purpose,  keep  close  to  the 


216  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

ground.  He  was  a  logician,  strong  in  solid  argu 
ment  to  convict  and  convert.  Thoroughly  equipped 
by  hard  study,  ceaseless  toil,  extended  travels, 
long  experience,  he  was  a  ready  disputant  whom 
no  man  could  afford  to  despise. 

"But  the  crowning  quality  of  his  greatness — 
that  which  will  keep  his  memory  fresh  when  oth 
ers,  his  peers  intellectually,  are  forgotten — was  his 
great  loving  heart,  his  humanity  to  man.  The 
dying  soldier  and  the  cup  of  cold  water  alone  im 
mortalized  Sir  Philip  Sidney.  It  was  this  trait  of 
character  that  made  all  his  colleagues  in  the 
House  his  warm  personal  friends,  even  through 
contests  sharp  and  sometimes  bitter.  It  was  this 
that  preserved  a  sweetness  neither  time  nor  age 
nor  contest,  nor  disappointed  ambition  could  sour. 
It  was  this  that  inspired  his  championship  of  the 
sailor  and  the  surfman,  of  the  carrier  and  the 
laborer,  of  the  Indian,  the  Irishman  and  the  He 
brew — of  the  downtrodden,  friendless  and  perse 
cuted  whenever  and  wherever  he  found  them." 

Such  was  the  testimony  borne  by  a  political  an 
tagonist,  with  whom  during  their  many  years' 
service  together  on  the  floor  of  Congress,  Mr.  Cox 
had  often  crossed  swords. 

Among  Mr.  Cox's  papers  was  found,  after  his 
death,  a  little  pocket  manual  of  "instructions  to 
mariners  in  case  of  shipwreck,  with  information 
concerning  the  life-saving  stations  upon  the  coasts 
of  the  United  States."  After  the  quoted  words,  on 
the  title  page,  he  had  written,  "for  which  thank 
God!" 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 


FOUR  NEW   STARS.1 


Mr.  Cox  was  a  thorough  believer  in  the  "mani 
fest  destiny"  of  the  Republic,  and  stood  ever  ready 
to  give  consistent  support  to  measures  for  the  en 
largement  of  the  circle  of  the  union  of  states.  In 
his  last  session  in  congress,  closing  with  the  first 
term  of  President  Cleveland  on  March  4,  1889,  he 
spoke  and  labored  with  all  the  energy  of  which  he 
was  capable  in  favor  of  the  admission  of  four  new 
states — the  two  Dakotas,  Montana,  and  Washing 
ton.  It  was  a  Democratic  House,  and  there  was 
a  determined  opposition  to  their  admission  on 
party  grounds.  That  this  opposition  was  over 
come  was  conceded  to  be  primarily  due  to  the  ef 
forts  of  Mr.  Cox. 

"There  is,"  he  confessed  in  a  speech  made  in  the 
House  January  15, 1889,  during  the  last  session  of 
his  service  in  that  body,  "a  sort  of  glamor  and  fas 
cination  about  the  admission  of  states  into  our  im 
perial  federation.  I  am  subject  to  influences  of  a 
romantic  character.  But  they  have  not  disturbed, 
and  I  think  will  not  disturb,  that  discretion  which 
belongs  to  congress  when  it  votes  to  make  com 
plete  the  circle  of  our  federal  felicities. 


218  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

"Mr.  Speaker,  as  we  approach  the  centenary  of 
the  life  of  our  nation  the  mind  becomes  reminis 
cent.  It  would  also  be  prophetic.  In  dim  outline 
the  ancient  seers  saw,  through  the  mists  of  west 
ern  seas,  our  hemisphere  as  the  home  of  a  race 
which  rejoiced  in  a  'golden  age.'  These  dreams 
take  hold  upon  the  imagination.  They  give  an  illu 
sion  to  our  'discretion'  on  bills  like  these  looking 
to  future  empire. 

"The  imaginary  commonwealth  of  Plato  was  not 
altogether  unsubstantial.  Some  of  the  visions 
upon  the  horizon  of  our  early  epochs  have  found 
realization.  But  a  republic  never  imagined  by 
Plato,  nor  dreamed  of  by  Harrington  or  Sir 
Thomas  More,  has  found  its  home  in  our  hemis 
phere.  Like  all  hope  that  has  its  fruition,  this  has 
come  to  us  through  toil,  danger  and  heroism.  These 
sacrifices  have  no  parallel  in  the  adventures  of  our 
race  or  upon  our  planet." 

"This  question  of  admission,"  he  added,  "is  not 
a  party  question.  In  the  nature  of  things  it  cannot 
be.  The  people  of  the  territories  are  not  wedded  to 
any  party.  They  are  remote  and  isolated;  preoc 
cupied  with  absorbing  local  matters.  They  are 
easily  molded,  like  the  clay  in  the  hands  of  the 
potter.  As  the  wheel  whirls,  a  little  pressure  here 
and  a  little  pressure  there,  and  out  comes  the 
graceful  vase,  irrespective  of  the  rude  and  selfish 
manipulations  of  our  Federal  politics.  If  these 
territories  be  not  admitted  this  session  they  will 
surely  be  admitted  under  Eepublican  auspices  in 
the  next  Congress,  and  their  politics  will  take  the 
reflection  of  the  friends  who  give  them  their  early 
nurture."  Again  he  said:  "Refuse  to  admit  this 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  219 

state  and  its  territorial  sisters?  Why,  sir,  you  may 
enact  that  frost  shall  cease  in  the  north  and  blooms 
in  the  south,  or  try  to  fix  the  figure  of  Proteus  by 
statute,  but  you  can  not  prevent  the  people  of  this 
territory  from  their  demand,  and  you  must  accede 
to  it;  and  if  this  Congress  does  not,  we  know  that 
the  next  Congress  will.  The  spirit  of  this  people 
of  the  Northwest  is  that  of  unbounded  push  and 
energy.  These  are  the  men  who  have  tunneled  our 
mountains,  who  have  delved  our  mines,  who  have 
bridged  our  rivers,  who  have  brought  every  part 
of  our  empire  within  the  reach  of  foreign  and  home 
markets,  who  have  made  possible  our  grand 
growth  and  splendid  development.  They  are  the 
men  who  have  made  our  national  life.  There  is  no 
parallel  in  history  to  their  achievements.  You  can 
not  hold  them  as  captive  to  the  Federal  system. 
You  must  give  them  self-reliant  statehood. 

"The  historian  of  Rome  draws  a  picture  of  the 
proud  Queen  of  Palmyra  arrayed  in  purple  and 
loaded  with  golden  chains  to  aggrandize  the  pro 
cession  in  honor  of  the  conqueror  of  Asia.  It 
needs  no  such  imagination  to  picture  the  condition 
of  our  inchoate  states  in  the  West.  They  will 
wear  no  golden  chains.  No,  sir!  They  will  march 
in  no  procession  of  dishonor.  Such  exhibitions  do 
not  belong  to  our  country.  Our  people  are  not  to 
be  led  in  fetters  at  the  car  of  an  imperial  Con 
gress.  Why,  such  exhibitions  were  unfit  even  for 
pagan  Rome.  So  that  in  every  possible  equip 
ment,  whether  divided  or  united,  this  remarkable 
territory  is  ready  to  join  that  circle  of  felicity 
which  makes  up  the  federal  fraternity." 

Anxious  to  testify  their  gratitude  to  him  in  per 
son,  the  citizens  of  the  newly  invested  States, 


220  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

urged  Mr.  Cox,  after  the  adjournment  of  Congress, 
to  make  a  tour  to  their  far  off  country.  Accord 
ingly,  in  June,  accompanied  by  his  wife,  in  re 
sponse  to  'their  pressing  invitation,  he  set  out  on 
his  journey  across  the  continent.  Everywhere  he 
was  hailed  as  the  father  of  the  infant  states.  A 
continuous  ovation  it  was.  On  the  Fourth  of  July 
the  announcement  (that  he  was  to  deliver  the  ad 
dress  at  Huron,  Dakota,  sufficed  to  attract  crowds 
from  all  available  points  of  the  new  state.  The 
address  closed  with  these  words: 

"Standing  upon  the  thresholds  of  these  young 
states,  and  in  the  morning  of  another  century,  may 
we  not  have  glimpses  of  tihe  far  future  of  their 
destiny?  It  may  not  be  that  of  a  Paradise  re 
gained;  it  may  not  be  that  of  a  New  Atlantis  rising 
from  the  wave,  and  where  no  frost  congeals  and 
no  storm  vexes;  it  may  not  be  a  Platonian  ideal, 
where  the  abstract  and  the  object  are  One,  and 
that  One  is  all  beautiful  with  Truth  and  Virtue; 
it  may  not  be  some  indefinite  Utopia  wearing  its 
coronal  of  unreal  happiness  beneath  Equatorial 
realms,  but  as  men  reason,  is  it  not  probable  that 
in  these  new  states,  in  the  very  heart  of  the  conti 
nent,  may  be  found  the  shining  nucleus  and  the 
concentrated  genius  of  the  most  miraculous  pro 
gress  known  to  human  society?  Already  we  may 
hear  the  cheerful  music  of  requited  toil,  inspiring 
the  builders  of  new  homes  and  the  founders  of  new 
commonwealths,  with  the  incentive  to  and  the 
fruition  of  the  best  human  energy  under  ithe  most 
favored  institutions. 

"Your  celebration  here  and  now  is  manifold  in 
meaning.  It  combines  Jefferson  and  the  Declara 
tion,  Washington  and  the  Constitution,  Jefferson 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  221 

and  Louisiana,  and  therefore  Jefferson  and  Da 
kota.  It  embraces  France  with  her  revolution 
and  our  own,  and  France  with  Louisiana,  Wash 
ington,  Jefferson  and  Dakota,  and  all  imbound  in 
the  golden  rigol  of  republican  institutions  and 
human  felicity.  Said  I  not  rightly,  as  men  count 
the  periods  of  time — it  is  a  wonderful  year? 

"If  other  celebrations  of  this  day  be  only  the 
laudation  of  the  historic  past,  then  they  will  be  a 
mere  ostentation,  which  will  die  with  the  year. 
But  your  jubilee  unites  hope  with  'history  and  ad 
vancement  with1  memory. 

"Yours,  citizens  of  the  Northwest,  is  a  celebra 
tion  that  bids  the  glowing  scenes  of  the  future  at 
distance,  hail !  No  more  the  apprehension  of  the 
(stealthy  tread  of  the  moccasin.  No  more  the 
plash  of  the  French  trader's  oar  in  your  lakes  and 
streams.  Toucli  the  pulse  of  our  active  age  and 
you  will  feel  the  throb  of  the  mighty  mechanic 
movement  which  interweaves  your  interchanges 
with  the  world.  Place  your  ear  to  the  earth  and 
you  will  hear  the  tramp,  tramp,  tramp  of  the  com 
ing  generations*  Stretch  your  vision  from  your 
dawning  centenary  eminence,  and  lo!  Chaos  and 
old  Night  roll  away  before  an  auroral  splendor, 
'far-sinking  into  splendor  without  end.7 

"All  hail!  Sisters  of  the  Northwest!  As  one  not 
altogether  unfamiliar  with  your  territory  and  its 
inspirations,  as  one  who  has  in  the  generation  gone 
by  endeavored  to  champion  the  rights  and  wel 
come  the  coming  of  the  states,  upon  your  southern 
and  eastern  border,  even  as  the  humblest  of  those 
accredited  from  the  great  entrepot  of  commerce  to 
the  National  Congress — may  I  not  be  permitted  to 
welcome  you  to  the  enjoyment  of  the  privileges, 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

advantages,  immunities  and  guarantees  which 
protect  property,  reputation,  person,  liberty,  relig 
ion  and  life.  Welcome  to  the  Olympian  race  in 
which  ye  are  about  to  start  upon  the  course  of  con 
tinental  empire!  All  hail!  the  promise  of  your 
superb  morning,  and  may  it  be  glorious  to  the 
end!  Under  favoring  auspices  may  you  so  direct 
your  destiny  that  the  genius  of  your  race  and  pol 
ity  shall  flourish  beyond  the  imagination  of  man 
to  conceive,  or 

' — Modern  Homers 
Sing,  or  smiling  Freedom  write 
In  their  Iliads  of  Peace." 

A  pathetic  interest  attaches  to  this  journey  and 
this  address,  as  both  were  his  last. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 


OLD   CAMPAIGNING  DAYS  IN   OHIO. 

Of  his  old  campaigning  days  in  Licking,  Ohio, 
Mr.  Cox  indulged  to  the  full  in  reminiscence,  in  a 
letter  addressed  to  the  chairman  of  the  Democratic 
€ounty  Committee  of  that  county  expressive  of  his 
regret  that  illness  forced  an  abandonment  of  his 
engagement  to  speak  in  his  old  home,  in  the  cam 
paign  of  1878.  He  was  en  route  to  keep  his  en 
gagement  when  he  was  taken  ill,  and  halted  at 
Pittsburg.  "But,"  he  writes,  "as  I  'lay  sick  of  a  fe 
ver,'  all  the  old  memories  of  campaigning  in  Lick 
ing  thronged  my  mind,  robed  in  many  visionary 
hues,  and  founded  on  many  a  serious  and  jolly 
experience.  I  forgot  for  a  time  my  trouble,  and 
the  hum  of  the  big  city  I  had  left;  threw  off  the 
coil  of  self  interest,  and  lived  again  in  the  early 
manhood.  These  memories  were  quickened  by  the 
pleasing  hope  of  renewing  scenes  of  a  score  of 
years  and  more  ago.  Since  then,  your  fields,  for 
ests  and  houses  have  changed ;  but  not  so  much,  I 
fear,  as  the  good,  jocund  and  wise  friends  of  that 
day.  But  the  well  known  voices  and  faces  came 
trooping  to  my  bedside,  and  I  resolved,  if  I  could, 
to  reproduce  them  on  paper,  if  they  did  not  escape 
me  on  my  memory.  There  are  times  when  the 
drums  are  unmuffled  and  they  sound  for  the  rally 


224  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

and  onset  as  of  yore."  And  then  recalling  many 
a  person  and  many  an  incident  of  the  days  gone  by 
in  "old  Licking"  he  adds: 

"Many  lands  have  I  seen  since,  redolent  of  asso 
ciations,  classic  and  romantic;  but  not  in  Van- 
cluse,  where  Petrarch  sung  of  Laura,  nor  in  Scot 
land,  where  Burns  sung  of  his  Highland  Mary,  have 
there  been  sweeter  thoughts  than  I  have  had  of 
thy  vale,  sweet  Cherry  Valley!  Other  lands  may 
produce  finer  sheep,  but  give  me  Harrison  and 
Union,  with  their  stock  of  Democratic  shepherds, 
like  Colonel  Alw^ard,  and  another  now  dead  and 
nameless,  who  never  allowed  me  to  pass  his  house 
without  dedicating  an  eagle,  with  a  flask  to  it,  full 
of  "copper  distilled"  of  his  ow^n  brewing,  which 
(the  eagle)  received  our  special  chrism  in  a  wagon 
shed  near  by.  One  hazelnut  from  the  groves  of 
Fallsbury  dissipates  all  memory  of  the  oranges 
and  palms  of  Andalusia;  a  taste  of  the  indigenous 
peach  from  Hopewell,  makes  the  apricots  and  nec 
tarines  of  the  Mediterranean  pall  on  the  taste; 
and  the  buckwheats,  crinkled  over  with  the  dulcet 
syrups  of  sorghum  and  Democracy,  were  made 
sweeter  by  the  relish  I  saw  the  bees  take  of  the 
purple  flower  as  it  bloomed  in  the  fields  of  Bur 
lington  and  Bennington.  You  may  not,  but  others 
may  recall  the  procession  as  it  came  under  the  lead 
of  the  most  militant  of  militia  captains  from  Hope- 
well  and  the  southeast  part  of  the  county.  It  in 
variably  had  that  same  string  band.  Is  the  band 
dissolved?  I  have  heard  many  strange  noises  since 
I  have  lived  in  this  isle  of  Manhattan,  and  much 
rare  music,  too.  I  have  heard  the  weird  songs  and 
tomtoms  of  Africa,  listened  to  the  tinkle  of  the 
guitar  and  the  clink  of  the  castanet  in  Spain;  have 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  225 

listened  to  Tamberlik  and  Patti  and  all  the  stars 
of  operatic  song;  have  held  my  breath  before  that 
wonderful  power  which  is  evoked  out  of  sound,  by 
the  German  skill  of  Gluck,  Bach,  Handel,  Hayden, 
Mozart,  Beethoven,  Schubert,  Spohr,  Mendelssohn 
and  Schuman;  have  been  entranced,  if  not  mys 
tified,  by  the  transcendental  genius  of  Wagner, 
translating  out  of  the  inner  soul  the  myths  of  the 
past  for  the  music  of  the  future;  and  yet — yet,  give 
me  the  string  band  of  the  Flint  Kidge  boys  and 
their  gallant  captain.  There  was  heart,  soul  and 
patriotism  in  it.  It  was  enough  to  satisy  the  sen 
timent  as  it  pleases  the  memory. 

"Men  may  come  and  go.  Time  with  its  chemis 
try  changes  even  iron;  the  water  drop  in  twenty 
years  will  wear  away  the  granite.  These  bodies  of 
ours,  more  easily  affected  than  iron  and  granite, 
change  and  go  first.  They  suffer  many  vicissi 
tudes;  but  the  indestructible  memory  of  twenty 
years  ago  in  old  Licking  will  never  die.  I  live  in  a 
town  of  twelve  hundred  thousand  people,  whose 
factories  make  the  big  shafts  and  engines  which 
mate  Neptune  in  his  wildest  tempest;  but  after  all, 
there  is  no  stream,  however  small,  like  that  which 
dances  through  the  memory  of  early  days;  no  en 
terprise  so  interesting  as  that  which  identifies  one 
writh  early  associations.  Is  there  any  thing  dearer 
to  my  heart  than  those  farmer  homes,  where  the 
wooden  latch  lifted  so  easily  to  the  touch?  or 
whose  large  open  fireplace  glowed  so  cheerily  in 
the  autumn  nights,  and  whose  big  feather  beds 
gave  such  delicious  rest  from  the  weariness  of  the 
political  arena?  It  is  not  what  is  big,  but  what  is 
dear  that  is  remembered." 


CHAPTER   XXIX. 


MEMBER  OF  THE   COBDEN  CLUB. 


A  Western  member  had  savagely  assailed  Mr. 
Cox  for  being  a  member  of  the  Cobden  club.  In  a 
speech  in  the  House  shortly  after  (May  17,  1888) 
on  "The  Surplus  and  the  Tariff,"  Mr.  Cox  took  oc 
casion  incidentally  to  pay  his  respects  to  his  assail 
ant,  and  to  vindicate  his  own  record.  The  follow 
ing  is  an  excerpt: 

"Names  are  not  much  in  a  debate,  but  as  the 
gentleman  has  spread  my  middle  name — Sullivan 
— on  the  record,  I  must  analyze  that  also  a  little 
in  return,  by  saying  that  Sullivan  is  from  the  Latin 
"Sol"  and  "Levant."  Sun  Rise!  (Laughter.)  My 
ancestor  came  from  the  East.  I  went  back  as  his 
reflux  wave.  (Laughter).  I  may  mention  confi 
dentially  that  one  of  my  'ancestors  carried  a  hod 
at  the  building  of  Solomon's  Temple.  (Laughter.) 
All  I  know  of  the  family  is  that  a  recent  ancestor 
came  over  from  Ireland  with  Lord  Baltimore.  He 
was  in  'noble'  company.  I  need  not  enlarge  fur 
ther.  There  is  another  test  of  Celtic  blood  to 
Vhich  I  may  refer,  as  it  is  so  pertinent  to  the  Mills 
bill.  The  gentleman  from  Nevada  will  be  pleased 
to  know  that  his  championship  of  the  Tory  protec 
tionists  of  England  indicates  that  he  leans 
towards,  if  he  does  not  belong  to,  the  bluest  blood 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  227 

of  the  landed  aristocracy  of  England.  Evidently 
the  speech  of  the  gentleman  was  for  the  purpose 
of  prejudicing  the  Irish  against  the  Democracy,  by 
reason  of  their  dislike  to  their  English  oppressors. 
But  his  arrow  falls  far  short  of  the  mark.  The 
gentleman  was  pleased  to  say  something  compli 
mentary  of  myself  as  a  member  of  the  Democratic 
party,  and  referred  to  me  as  a  representative  of  a 
cosmopolitan  constituency  in  a  cosmopolitan  city, 
He  spelled  my  name  at  full,  and  more  than  inti 
mated  that  I  became  a  member  of  the  Cobden  Club 
because  it  was  a  'nobleman's  foreign  association/ 

"I  am  at  loss  how  to  discriminate.  I  have  no 
special  vanity,  but  I  suppose  the  applause  was  in 
tended  for  myself  as  a  Democrat,  author,  wit, 
humorist  and  representative  (laughter),  and  that 
the  laughter  was  at  the  gentleman's  expense  for 
associating  me  with  noblemen — as  such  people  run 
nowadays  in  and  out  of  divorce  courts  in  England. 

"Mr.  Chairman,  I  am  not  altogether  certain  that 
the  gentleman  should  be  laughed  at  for  calling  me 
a  nobleman.  I  have  had  some  sort  of  a  decoration 
given  me  by  the  successor  of  the  Caliphs  and  the 
Sultans.  But  the  nobility  which  I  most  admire  is 
not  that  of  mere  title.  I  had  almost  forgotten  my 
honors  abroad.  I  did  dearly  yearn  for  the  society 
of  you  gentlemen.  (Laughter.)  All  the  pride  I 
have  is  to  be  a  Commoner  along  with  other  com 
mon  folks  here.  (Applause  and  Laughter.) 

"I  do  not  care  even  for  the  courteous  'Honora 
ble'  in  this  House.  I  have  an  ambition  to  be  con 
sidered  a  good  man  and  a  faithful  member.  I 
have  no  special  desire  to  be  considered  either 
witty,  humorous,  or  a  litterateur.  Whatever  the 
House  or  the  gentleman  may  have  meant  by  their 


228  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

laughter  and  applause,  I  would  recommend  to  him 
the  verse  of  Tennyson,  where  he  says: 
How  e'er  it  be,  it  seems  to  me 
?Tis  only  noble  to  be  good; 
Kind  hearts  are  more  than  coronets, 
And  simple  faith  than  Norman  blood. 

(Cheers). 

"And  certainly  no  one  ever  merited  this  tribute 
of  the  laureate  of  England  more  than  Richard  Cob- 
den,  the  yeoman's  son,  the  friend  of  America,  and 
the  defender  of  just  economic  laws.  (Cheers). 

"When  the  gentleman  prints  my  name  Samuel 
Sullivan  Cox  in  the  Record,  he  indicates  something 
of  my  Celtic  blood,  but  he  indicates  something  bet 
ter  than  my  thought  and  service. 

"I  beg  to  say  that  I  accept  my  middle  name  with 
considerable  pride;  for  among  the  best  men  of  the 
Revolution  from  New  Hampshire  were  the  two  Sul- 
livans,  one  of  whom  was  governor  of  Massachu 
setts  and  the  other  a  general  in  our  army.  Both 
were  the  friends  of  Washington.  The  general  was 
not  only  the  first  to  wrest  Fort  William  and  Henry 
from  the  tory  government  of  England,  but,  after 
the  Revolution  w~as  over,  he  signalized  his  bravery 
and  skill  by  suppressing  the  Indians 
in  Central  New  York  when  they  were 
allied  with  the  Tories  with  which  the 
gentleman  is  pleased  to  be  allied.  By 
ancestry,  by  inclination,  by  virtue  of  long  service 
here,  running  through  nearly  thirty  years,  I  never 
had  one  thought  for  or  sympathy  with  the  Tory 
leaders  who  sought  to  drive  England  to  despera 
tion  by  their  protective  policies.  The  Tories  o* 
New  Jersey,  from  which  state  came  my  folk, 
were  in  alliance  with  the  Hessian  and  the  red-coat 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  229 

to  drive  tthe  patriots  of  the  revolution  into  ignoble 
humiliation.  They  failed,  but  had  they  succeeded 
and  had  the  Liberals  of  England,  whom  the  gen 
tleman  stigmatizes,  failed,  we  might  still  have 
been  an  English  dependency,  and  the  gentleman, 
if  he  had  lived  at  all,  might  have  been  engaged  in 
the  constabulary  force  in  Ireland  to-day  endeavor 
ing  !to  suppress,  under  the  orders  of  Tory  Balfour, 
the  enfranchisement  of  the  people  of  his  native 
isle  who  are  seeking  for  home  rule.  *  *  *  * 
This  little  esprit  of  the  gentleman,  according  to 
the  brackets  in  the  Becord,  produced  'laughter  and 
applause/ 

"It  is  well  that  the  gentleman  got  in  his  laugh 
ter  first.  The  incident  reminds  me  of  another 
Irishman.  He  was  in  a  meadow  with  a  little 
bovine.  The  bovine  began  to  paw  the  earth  and 
tear  up  the  ground  with  his  horns  and  the  Irish 
man  laughed  and  laughed  alt  the  unique  perform 
ance.  (Laughter).  But  soon  the  little  bull  pitched 
him  over  a  fence.  The  Irishman  got  up  and  said, 
'Isn't  it  lucky  I  got  in  my  laugh  first?'  (Laughter.) 
Before  I  finish  with  the  history  of  this  club  and  its 
opponents  and  members  the  gentleman  will  be, 
perhaps,  not  a  little  astonished  to  know  where  the 
laugh  comes  in." 

Later  in  the  speech  he  paid  a  glowing  eulogy  to 
Richard  Cobden,  in  which  he  said: 

"That  night  of  English  wrong  was  set  thick  with 
sitars — a  whole  constellation.  Cobden  among 
them  was  shining  resplendently  as  a  star  of  the 
first  magnitude.  Oobden  was  not  a  nobleman. 
He  was  born  of  the  people.  He  was  the  son  of  a 
yeoman.  He  was  brought  up  to  trade.  It  was  his 


230  SAM  UEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

business  training,  together  with  observation 
abroad,  while  a  partner  in  a  Manchester  cotton 
mill,  that  made  him  so  cogent  in  debate  and  so 
simple  and  earnest  in  his  devotion  to  the  cause  of 
the  people  and  to  the  'cheap  loaf.' 

"Mr.  Chairman,  I  should  be  derelict  as  a  member 
of  Congress,  or  as  a  citizen  of  the  United  States,  if 
I  did  not,  even  in  t(his  feeble  way,  vindicate  the 
splendid  fame  of  Kichard  Cobden.  He  was  not 
merely  a  friend  of  the  poor  when  they  needed 
friends,  but  he  was  a  distinguished  economist 
when  economy  was  thundered  from  the  hustings 
for  the  relief  of  the  starving.  More  than  all  these, 
by  his  speeches,  writings,  diplomacy,  and  parlia 
mentary  efforts,  he  has  done  more  'than  any  other 
Englishman  to  hold  up  the  institutions  of  our  own 
country,  not  merely  for  the  indulgence  of  man 
kind,  but  for  their  imitation  and  admiration.  Nor 
were  the  enconiums  which  he  had  bestowed  upon 
our  country  born  of  a  mercenary  or  trading  spirit. 
He  had  a  genuine  love  for  America.  He  twice 
visited  us.  He  denounced  those  who  had  depre 
ciated  our  character  and  slandered  our  people. 

"In  a  volume  of  his  writings,  which  I  have  in  my 
hand,  there  is  a  comparison  between  Great  Britain 
and  America.  With  what  fervor  he  turns  to  the 
industrial,  economical,  and  foreign  peaceful  poli 
cies  of  America,  while  with  the  live  coal  of  a  seer 
on  his  lip  he  bids  at  distance  our  future,  Hail! 
He  does  this  with  a  pride  that  knows  no  selfish 
ness  and  with  a  humanity  that  regards  no  isola 
tion.  England  and  America  were,  in  his  view, 
bound  together  in  peaceful  fetters  with  the  strong 
est  of  all  ligatures  that  can  bind  two  nations — 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  231 

commercial  interests  and  the  destiny  of  represen 
tative  governments.  Every  reform  that  England 
has  made  in  the  interests  of  her  people,  and  for  her 
colonial  advancement,  found  Kichard  Cobden  its 
friend,  and  his  gifted  speech  its  ally.  And  it 
comes  with  ill  grace  from  an  American,  whether 
native  or  adopted,  'to  blur  the  escutheon  of  this 
champion  of  America  and  this  honest  friend  of  the 
people." 


CHAPTER  XXX. 


A   DISCIPLE   OF   IZAAK   WALTON. 

Protection  of  our  fisheries  was  one  of  the  multi 
farious  objects  he  sought  through  legislation.  In 
a  speech  in  the  House  May  12,  1884,  on  a  bill  to 
protect  fish  in  the  Potomac  river,  he  displayed  a 
wide  knowledge  of  the  entire  subject.  Incident 
ally  he  referred  to  his  own  experience  as  a  disciple 
of  Izaak  Walton.  We  quote: 

"I  have  made  a  pilgrimage  to  the  tomb  of  Izaak 
Walton  in  Winchester  Cathedral,  and  have  made 
my  homage  to  that  'grand  old  man'  and  rare  old 
fisher.  I  found  that  his  remains  were  under  a  large 
black  slab,  in  a  chapel  in  the  south  aisle  called 
Prior  Silkstead's  chapel.  It  was  evening  when  I 
endeavored  to  decipher  the  poetic  tribute  to  the 
ancient  angler — 'crowned  with  eternal  bliss/  The 
cheerfulness  of  his  disposition  and  the  serenity  of 
his  mind  gave  to  him  ninety  years  of  felicity  in  the 
midst  of  great  and  good  and  yet  sportive  scholars 
and  churchmen.  I  honor  him  as  well  for  his  pen 
as  his  hook  and  line;  for  his  grace  of  diction  as  for 
his  genial  muse  and  his  many  colored  flies;  and, 
above  all,  for  that  lesson  of  equipoise  which  he 
teaches  in  his  rambles  after  his  favorite  recreation. 
He  teaches  the  contemplative  as  well  as  sportive 
quality  of  the  art.  But  if  any  one  think  that  the 
literature  of  fishing  began  with  Izaak  Walton  let 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  233 

him  read  classic  lore.  It  is  as  full  of  the  details 
as  it  is  of  the  fun  and  poetry  of  fishing.  Arion 
rides  upon  a  fish  as  easily  as  the  bold  Viking  darts 
out  of  the  Norse  fiord  after  his  prey.  But  neither 
the  classic  nor  romantic  past  has  any  history  or 
fancy  equal  to  the  reality  of  our  deep  sea  fishing 

or  of  our  artificial  reproduction. 

******* 

"I  have  had  some  experience  in  fishing.  May  I 
be  pardoned  if  I  refer  to  the  fact  that  I  have  fished 
under  the  shadows  of  our  Sierras  in  Tahoe,  lake 
and  stream;  that  I  have  followed  the  mountain 
rivulet  Kestonica  in  Corsica,  where  the  waters 
blanch  the  boulders  into  dazzling  whiteness,  and 
the  associations  of  the  vendetta  and  the  Bona- 
partes  give  a  ruddy  tinge  to  the  adventure;  that  I 
have  caught  the  cod  in  the  Arctic  around  Cap 
Nord,  under  the  majestic  light  of  the  midnight 
sun;  that  I  have  angled  in  the  clear  running  Ma- 
laren  Saltsjon,  which  circulates  healthfully  amid 
the  splendid  islets  of  stately  Stockholm,  and  in  the 
Bosphorus,  in  sight  of  the  historic  Euxine  and  the 
marble  palaces  and  mosques  of  two  continents; 
that  I  have  been  tossed  in  shallops  along  with  the 
jolly  fishers  of  the  Bay  of  Biscay;  that  I  have  had 
the  honor  of  beholding  the  pillars  near  Iskender- 
oon  in  the  northwest  corner  of  the  Mediterranean, 
erected  by  a  grateful  people  on  the  spot  where 
Jonah  was  thrown  ashore  by  the  whale;  and  that 
I  have  bounded  through  the  league-long  rollers  on 
the  shores  of  New  Jersey,  along  with  my  favorite 
life-savers — to  see  and  feel  the  'bluefish  wriggling 
on  the  hooks.'  But  notwithstanding  these  wide 
spread  endeavors,  I  am  not  prepared  to  say  that 
there  has  been  any  perceptible  diminution  in  the 
quantity  of  fishes  in  the  waters  of  our  star!" 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 
"MAN  OF  WIT  AND  WISDOM." 

One  of  his  Congressional  eulogists  said  of  Sam 
uel  Sullivan  Cox :  "He  was  undoubtedly  a  man  of 
wit,  and  I  think  regretted  that  he  was  such  a  man; 
but  he  was  wise  also."  There  is  much  force  in  this 
statement.  The  man  of  both  wit  and  wisdom  is  in 
constant  peril  of  seeing  the  former  overshadow,  in 
the  popular  estimation,  the  latter.  As  a  rule,  in  a 
public  orator,  the  wit  is  more  eagerly  waited  than 
the  wisdom.  It  was  beyond  question  discomforting 
to  Mr.  Cox  to  discover  that  the  wit  of  his  discourse 
was  oft  remembered  more  vividly  than  its  wisdom. 
That  is  one  of  the  penalties  all  wits  must  suffer. 

A  close  study  of  his  speeches  or  his  writings 
will  serve  to  show  that  Mr.  Cox's  wit  was  only  the 
hand-maiden  of  his  wisdom.  It  sprang  naturally 
from  the  subject  in  hand.  Never  seemed  it  forced 
or  far-fetched.  It  was  bubble  and  sparkle.  In 
his  speeches  it  came  usually  in  repartee,  and  under 
conditions  which  forbade  a  possibility  that  it 
could  have  been  premeditated.  It  was  as  invol 
untary  as  breathing.  It  used  to  be  remarked  by 
his  Congressional  colleagues  that  a  witticism 
dropped  from  his  mouth  during  a  speech  would 
convulse  the  House  with  laughter  before  he  him 
self  seemed  to  be  aware  of  its  perpetration.  Mr. 
Cox  did  not  court,  and  did  not  relish,  a  reputation 


SAMUEL  SJJLLIVAN  COX  235 

as  a  wit.  Fain  would  he,  if  it  had  been  possible, 
have  repressed  this  ever-present  inclination  to  ex 
tract  the  humor  from  every  situation.  But  in  the 
words  of  one  of  his  eulogists,  Dr.  Talmage,  "he 
never  laughed  at  anything  except  that  which 
ought  to  be  laughed  at.  There  were  in  it  no  innu 
endoes  that  tipped  both  ways;  nothing  viperine." 
We  have  the  authority  of  Douglas  Gerold  that  "it 
is  better  to  be  witty  and  wise  than  witty  and  oth 
erwise."  Mr.  Cox  had  a  happy  combination  of  wit 
and  wisdom. 

A  significant  illustration  of  the  confidence  re 
posed  in  Mr.  Cox  by  his  associates  in  Congress,  po 
litical  opponents  as  well  as  political  friends,  is 
afforded  in  the  fact  that  Speaker  Blaine,  when 
charges  of  corruption  of  members  by  the  Credit 
Mobilier  filled  the  air,  and  a  congressional  inves 
tigation  was  demanded,  called  upon  Mr.  Cox  to 
name  the  committee  of  investigation.  Here  at 
least  was  a  member  against  whose  personal  integ 
rity  the  whisper  of  suspicion  had  never  been 
raised.  Here  was  one  who  would  be  just  and 
fearless  in  the  selection  of  investigators  of  the 
damaging  charges.  To  Mr.  Cox,  therefore, 
Speaker  Blaine  temporarily  surrendered  his  chair, 
that  he  might  name  the  committee  to  which  repu 
tations  would  be  committed. 

While  Hayes  was  President,  Secretary  of  State 
Evarts  gave  a  dinner  in  honor  of  President  An- 
gell,  of  Michigan  University,  who  had  just  been 
appointed  Minister  to  China.  Mr.  Cox,  Chairman 
of  the  House  Committee  on  Foreign  Affairs,  was 
one  of  the  invited  guests.  On  Secretary  Evarts 
presenting  to  him  the  guest  of  the  evening,  Mr. 


230  SAMUEL  EULLIVAN  COX 

Cox  exclaimed,  "Why!  Jim  Angell!"  "Why!  Sam 
Cox!"  exclaimed  President  Angell  in  response.  It 
transpired  that  the  two  had  been  college  mates 
at  Brown  University  a  third  of  a  century  before, 
but  had  never  meanwhile  met,  until  this  meeting 
under  the  roof  of  Secretary  Evarts. 

General  Kosecrans,  formerly  member  of  Con 
gress  from  California,  to  an  interviewer  once  re 
lated  this:  "I  remember  one  day  some  one  on  the 
other  side,  I  forget  his  name,  was  making  a  strong 
pro-Chinese  speech,  winding  up  something  in  this 
way:  "The  Chinaman  is  clean,  he  is  temperate,  he 
is  frugal,  wThat  fault  have  you  to  find  with  him?' 
Cox  piped  out:  'He  wears  his  shirt  outside  of  his 
breeches!'  The  House  was  crowded  and  that  was 
the  last  of  that  orator  and  his  Chinese  speech !" 

His  impressions  of  those  tJhen  great  Liberal 
leaders  of  the  British  parliament,  Gladstone  and 
Bright,  are  given  in  a  letter  from  London  in  May, 
1881,  giving  an  account  of  a  visit  to  the  House  of 
Commons.  "Gladstone,"  he  wrote,  "is  a  fluent 
easy  speaker — not  eloquent  exactly — somewhat 
verbose  and  involved,  with  a  happy  audacity  that, 
on  party  occasions,  has  a  biting  sarcasm.  He  looks 
somewhat  like  Daniel  Webster  about-  the  head, 
and  has  much  nobility  of  expression  in  his  face. 
He  is  pale,  thoughtful,  and  commanding,  and 
never  noisy.  Mr.  Bright  is  of  another  order,  and 
reminds  me  somewhat  of  Thomas  Ewing  in  his  dig 
nified,  easy  mode  of  stating  questions." 

Brimfull  as  he  was  of  humor,  Mr.  Cox  never  lost 
sight  of  the  proprieties  of  the  occasion.  He  could 
be  stern  as  the  sternest,  and  severe  as  the  severest, 
when  sternness  and  severity  were  demanded. 
Often  called  to  preside  over  the  deliberations  of 


WASHINGTON  RESIDENCE  OF  S.  S.  COX,  1889,  NEW  HAMPSHIRE  AVE. 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  237 

the  House,  he  filled  the  chair  with  exemplary  dig 
nity,  and  ruled  sternly  and  impartially.  A  stranger 
would  never  Lave  suspected  in  him  the  propensi 
ties  for  which  the  people  really  loved  him  best. 
The  following  incident  is  related:  While  Mr. 
Cox  was  acting  speaker,  during  Speaker  Kerr'B 
illness  in  the  Forty-Fourth  Congress,  charges  were 
preferred  against  the  Doorkeeper  of  the  House. 
They  were  based  largely  on  a  foolish  and  frivolous 
letter  the  doorkeeper  had  written  home  to  Texas, 
in  which,  among  other  things,  he  had  said,  describ 
ing  his  own  importance,  that  he  was  "a  biger 
man  than  Old  Grant."  The  charges  were  referred 
to  the  Committee  on  Rules,  of  which  pro  tern 
Speaker  Cox  was  acting  chairman.  Mr.  Cox 
wrote  the  report  recommending  the  doorkeeper's 
removal.  His  secretary,  to  whom  Mr.  Cox  showed 
his  proposed  report,  laughingly  remarked  that  it 
seemed  curious  that  one  who  himself  so  loved  fun, 
should  condemn  levity  in  others,  the  secretary  add 
ing  that  since  Mr.  Cox  had  been  occupying  the 
speaker's  chair  he  had  grown  very  serious  and 
stern.  "I  know  it,"  spoke  up  Mr.  Cox,  with  a 
merry  twinkle,  "and  if  I  don't  get  down  on  the 
floor  pretty  soon  and  let  off  steam,  I'll  explode." 

In  addressing  public  audiences  Mr.  Cox  quickly 
sized  the  character  of  those  before  him,  and 
adapted  his  language,  particularly  his  illustra 
tions,  to  their  grasp.  No  one  could  fail  to  be  im 
pressed  with  this  fact  who  accompanied  him  on 
his  rounds  of  meetings  in  his  Congressional  Dis 
trict  on  the  eve  of  an  election.  If  they  were  Long 
shoremen  he  was  talking  to,  there  was  no  end  of 
nautical  phrases  and  marine  illustrations  which 
were  at  his  command  to  point  his  argument.  And 


238  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

so  all  the  way  up  the  scale — his  wondrous  versa 
tility  enabled  him  to  discourse  to  his  hearers  in  a 
vernacular  best  suited  to  their  intelligence. 

In  his  lecture  on  "African  Humor"  Mr.  Cox  gave 
many  a  convulsing  illustration  of  his  subject. 
Among  others,  one  for  which  he  was  himself  re 
sponsible: 

"The  African's  religious  views  are  peculiar.  An 
old  negro  expressed  his  faith  in  prayer,  but  he 
said  'it  depended  on  what  yo'  prayed  for.  I  allays 
notice,'  said  this  Ethiopian  philosopher,  'dat  when 
I  pray  for  de  Lord  to  send  one  of  Massa  Peyton's 
turkeys  fo'  de  old  man  it  don't  come;  but  when  I 
prays  dat  he'll  send  de  old  man  fo'  de  turkey,  my 
prayer's  answered.'  "  "Sunset"  tells  the  following 
in  the  same  connection:  "I  remember  one  occasion 
when  my  wife  and  I  attended  a  colored  meeting, 
and  they  were  trying  to  raise  f  16.50  to  repair  a 
place  in  the  ceiling  of  the  church.  After  the  box 
had  gone  round  once  there  remained  a  deficiency 
of  $6.87.  They  began  to  sing  again  and  were 
about  to  pass  the  box,  when  my  wife  and  I  decided 
to  make  up  what  was  lacking,  and  handed  the 
amount  to  a  colored  girl  in  front  of  us,  who  sang 
like  an  angel  and  looked  like  the  devil,  who 
proudly  marched  up  the  aisle  and  deposited  the 
money  with  the  deacons.  Then  there  was  a  shout 
went  up  from  the  minister:  'Lock  de  door  and  shut 
the  winders.  Glory  hallelujah!  Dere's  angels 
right  here  among  us;  let's  raise  $16.50  more  while 
we're  about  it.'  They  meant  to  make  the  most  of 
their  opportunity." 

In  the  freedom  of  social  intercourse,  as  well  as 
in  his  privaite  correspondence  with  friends,  Mr. 
Cox's  humor  was  ever  bubbling,  like  the  perennial 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

spring.    He  was  a  born  caricaturist,  and  many  of 
his  letters  show  pencilings  worthy  of  a  Nast. 

Hardly  a  page  of  his  correspondence  with  close 
friends  that  was  not  illuminated  by  flashes  of  his 
humor.  A  few  random  shots  follow:  To 
a  friend  who  was  a  candidate  for  office 
in  a  "Salt"  district:  "If  you  are  of  the  elect  I  shall 
— I  know  I  shall — order  a  gurgling  cocktail,  and 
put  salt  in  all  my  food  for  a  year." 

From  New  York  in  the  fall  of  '83:  "I  have  been 
speaking  effectively — if  my  thorax  is  any  index — • 
in  New  Jersey  and  New  York.  I  spoke  with  Ab- 
bett,  McClellan,  et  al — et  al  will  be  elected.  Look 
out  for  his  returns !" 

Referring  to  an  impracticable  proposition: 
"That  would  have  been  like  the  Irish  mob,  who 
hated  a  banker,  and  to  spite  him  burned  his 
notes!" 

In  response  to  a  challenge  to  go  to  the  Adiron- 
dacks:  "If  you  mean  by  going  into  the  woods  for 
a  fish,  I'm  your  Izaak  Walton.  I'm  no  Nimrod, 
and  don't  know  him  from  a  ramrod." 

Accompanying  a  pen-and-ink  sketch  of  his  party 
in  a  boat  blue  fishing:  "You  can  see  for  yourself 
how  we  pursue  the  apostle's  calling." 

Near  the  end  of  the  Congressional  session  of  '76: 
"We  are  trying  to  close  up.  I  get  lots  of  instruc 
tion  on  silver — enough  for  a  temple  in  Gizco,  or  a 
full  moon!" 

Speaking  of  his  summer  outing  in  1877  along  the 
Jersey  coast:  "From  Ocean  Grove,  where  a  Meth 
odist  whangdoodle  was  howling  like  the  Dervishes 
of  the  East — to  Long  Branch  where  Boss  Kelly  re 
posed  under  the  red  moon,  as  serene  and  gentle  as 
a  true  man — which  he  is!" 


240  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX. 

Speaking  of  a  political  meeting  addressed  by 
him  under  the  depressing  influences  of  an  Ohio 
defeat:  "It  was  dull  and  dead;  but  we  had  a 
Sankey-monious  (old)  time,  and  the  Moody  fit 
passed  by." 

Acknowledging  in  London  the  receipt  of  a  for 
warded  letter:  "Yours  has  been  to  Egypt — had 
Cheops  for  breakfast." 

From  Manhattan  Beach  on  an  August  day  in  '87: 
"I  go  to  Sullivan  county  to-morrow,  where  I  can 
catch  fish  and  worship  God  like  the  Puritans — and 
correct  proof,  which  was  more  than  they  did  when 
they  made  rum  out  of  Santa  Cruz  molasses." 

Writing  from  Fire  Island  in  June,  777,  after  hav 
ing  been  selected  for  the  Long  Talk  at  the  Tarn 
many  celebration :  "I  did  not  expect  to  be  selected 
for  the  'Long  Talk/  4th  July.  But  I  am;  and  here, 
after  catching  blue  fish  till  I  have  got  over  the 
blues,  and  black  fish  till  Fred  Douglas  seems 
white,  I  am  anchored  at  my  'Talk';  and  as  I  write 
Mrs.  Cox  copies.  It  looks  so  much  better  in  MS.S. 
after  she  copies,  that  I  feel  eloquent." 

From  Boston,  November  21,  '79,  while  on  a  fly 
ing  lecturing  tour:  "I  write  you  in  Boston,  under 
aesthetics!  The  air  is  redolent  of  the  aroma  of  a 
refined  and  elegant  cultchaw!  But  I  lectured  at 
Cambridge  and  Dartmouth,  and  had  a  full  meas 
ure  of  success;  and  brought  home  ten  days  worth 
of  gab.  I  levy  on  N.  E.  to  pay  my  taxes!  I  have 
been  through  N.  H.  from  the  Canada  line  down  to 
Concord;  and  ran  only  when  the  starry  snowflake 
filled  the  circumambiency,  as  it  were." 

From  Americus,  Ga.,  in  March,  '77,  while  on  a 
lecture  tour,  and  referring  to  a  reception  at  which 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  241 

Congressman  Blount  addressed  the  honored  guest: 
"We  (Mrs.  Cox  and  myself)  have  had  since  we  left 
Columbia  a  floral  procession,  and  such  times!  If 
you  could  have  been  along  you  would  recognize 
what  I  never  understood,  the  'Sunny  South'  in  its 
kindest  sense  of  what  they  think  is  gratitude  to  a 
friend.  Read  Col.  Blount's  speech.  It  is  rather 
steep,  but  I  sweat  it  through." 

At  the  close  of  the  sesison  of  Congress,  in 
March,  '83 :  "It  was  a  busy  session  for  me.  But  am 
through  it  well.  I  send  you  a  Washington  paper. 
It  has  an  article  in  it  you  will  recognize;  for  it  is 
mostly  from  one  of  yours;  and  a  picture  in  it  you 
won't  recognize,  for  it  is  one  of — me.  Still  gaze 
on  it  fondly  for  the  good  intentions." 

From  New  York  September  23,  '84,  on  learning 
of  the  death  of  a  political  admirer:  "I  am  very 
sorry  to  hear  my  old  friend is  deceased.  I  re 
member  him  very  pleasantly.  One  of  his  odd  ideas 
was — and  I  cannot  put  him  down  therefore  as  a 
crank — that  I  w^as  considerable  of  a  person  and 
made  a  larger  figure  politically  than  I  do  physi 
cally.  Perhaps  in  a  better  world,  where  things  are 
measured  by  other  standards,  he  has  reversed  his 
opinion,  and  may  think  I  am  a  large  man  physi 
cally  and  otherwise  not,  for  there  must  be  differ 
ent  standards  after  the  incorporealities  have  van 
ished." 

On  hearing  of  an  addition  to  the  family  of  a 
friend:  "Mark  Twain  holds  we  were  all  babies 
once.  I  can't  recall  it,  but  I  suppose  it's  so." 

From  a  lecturing  tour  in  the  South  in  March,  '77: 
"I  have  lectured  at  Rome,  Atlanta,  Macon,  and 
last  night  here,  to  big  crowds;  and  really  am  mak- 


242  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

ing  money.  Think  of  that!  The  noble  pursuit  of 
avarice!" 

On  hearing  of  the  election  of  Hayes  to  the  Gov 
ernorship  of  Ohio  in  October  in  1875:  "Well,  Ohio 
is  gone!  It  makes  me  blue — for  it  maizes  20  yeara 
work  and  waiting  a  doubt;  1876  is  in  peril.  Am 
writing  a  book,  <Why  We  Laugh?'  But  I  don't 
feel  like  answering  that  conundrum — in  politics — 
as  we  don't  laugh." 

Prom  New  York,  November  15,  '76,  amid  the 
suspense  following  the  disputed  Presidential  elec 
tion:  "We  are  in  the  mist,  but  the  dawn  is  ours. 
But  we  won't  count  it  till  we  see  the  peaks." 

At  the  opening  of  a  Congress:  "I  will  order  the 
Congressional  Globe  for  you  daily.  You  can  so 
live  as  to  'die  daily.'  Grace  Greenwood  told  my 
wife  that  she  had  read  the  ' Globe'  of  one  day  and 
felt  like  a  'She  Atlas' — there  was  such  heaviness 
in  its  rotundity  to  bear  up." 

From  Washington,  August  19,  '88,  in  response 
to  an  inquiry  from  the  agitated  farmers  of  Pom- 
pey  whether  it  was  true  that  the  Mills  bill  put  po 
tatoes  on  the  free  list:  "Potatoes  are  not  affected 
at  all  by  the  Mills  bill.  Put  that  down  sure  and 
salt  it.  They  would  have  been  affected  if  it  were 
not  for  some  stiff  people  who  wanted  starch,  and 
starch,  as  you  know,  is  made  out  of  potatoes.  The 
toothsome  potato  has  the  aegis  of  the  government 
all  over  it.  Every  eye  of  the  potato  glistens  with 
delight  because  it  is  protected." 

From  Washington  a  few  days  later:  "I  am  glad 
that  the  potato  question  has  been  settled.  It  was 
a  terrible  strain  on  the  Committee  on  Census, 
which  organized  all  its  forces  and  made  a  raid 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  243 

upon  the  Ways  and  Means  committee  room  in 
order  to  make  it  an  absolute  verity  so  that  Pompey 
could  not  sit  down  amid  the  ruins  of  Carthage  and 
view  vast  potato  fields  grow  to  rot!  What  a  ben 
eficent  government  we  are." 

A  new  member,  of  large  girth  and  pretentious 
wit,  from  Michigan,  sought  on  one  occasion,  in  the 
winter  of  1880,  to  make  Mr.  Cox  the  butt  of  his  ridi 
cule.  He  not  only  spoke  contemptuously  of  the 
New  York  member's  stature,  but  more  than  inti 
mated  that  his  Committee  of  Foreign  Affairs  was 
engaged  mainly  in  manufacturing  witticisms.  In 
his  reply  Mr.  Cox  pointed  out  the  important  meas 
ures  which  had  originated  in  his  Committee,  and 
then  turned  his  attention  to  the  personal  criticisms 
which  had  been  hurled  at  him.  "Why,"  said  he, 
"should  I  be  accused  of  mere  play  here?  Have  I 
not  shown  some  fruits  as  the  result  of  studious 
work?  Did  I  not  carry  through  here  the  Thurman 
bill  as  to  railroads,  the  life-saving  bill,  the  census, 
and  many  others  which  might  be  named?  Is  it 
not  time  to  stop  this  constant  depreciation  of  one 
who  really  cares  little  for  being  here,  except  to  do 
something  worthy?  Where  is  the  fun  in  such  mis 
representation?  Will  my  friend  from  Michigan 
bear  with  me  if  I  give  him  a  lesson  in  the  matter 
of  congressional  debate?  Humor  is  a  large  part 
of  it.  It  should  be  ratiocinative,  however.  It 
should  have  a  practical  object.  The  point  is  to 
make  your  fun  dialectic  and  rational.  *  *  The 
gentleman  from  Michigan  was  also  pleased  to  re 
fer,  in  a  pleasant  way,  to  some  volumes  of  travel  I 
had  written.  Thankful  for  such  notice,  I  fear  he 
has  omitted  the  one  most  apposite.  There  is  a 


244  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

volume  in  my  desk  and  I  will  send  it  'to  Mm.  It  is 
entitled  "Why  We  Laugh."  I  send  it  to  the  gen 
tleman  with  my  regards,  and  with  a  view  to  ask 
him  to  regard  it  philosophically,  "why,"— not 
"how,"  nor  "at  what"  we  laugh.  It  will  show  him 
that  nearly  all  great  natures  manufactured  witti 
cisms  now  and  then,  from  Sir  Thomas  More  to 
Thomas  Corwin,  from  Julius  Caesar  to  the  gentle 
man.  But  their  wit  had  a  rational  purpose.  They 
were  logical  in  their  laughs.  They  used  what 
Aristotle  knew  to  be  the  reductio  ad  absurdum, 
and  whaJt  Whately  commends  as  the  best  means  of 
exposing  fallacy  and  fraud.  I  wish  I  could  read 
an  extract  or  so  before  I  send  my  friend  the  vol 
ume. 

"Now,  in  the  view  of  these  lessons  for  mirth,  was 
it  logical  for  my  friend  the  other  day  to  call  the  at 
tention  of  the  House  to  my  body?  Suppose  I  am 
little,  was  it  logical,  or  parliamentary,  or  kind  to 
say  it?  It  was  done  without  malice,  but  it  perme 
ated  every  one  of  my  two  million  pores.  Suppose 
I  had  the  gentleman's  immensity  of  pores,  wrhere 
could  not  the  laughter  extend?  Then  there  would 
have  been  need  of  some  improvements,  "because  of 
a  loss  of  moisture."  Why,  sir,  every  sweat-gland 
in  my  small  body  gave  out  its  mortifying  perspira 
tion  because  they  were  so  few  compared  with  the 
pores  and  glands  of  larger  bodies.  Now,  sir,  1 
submit,  was  my  size  a  subject  for  any  gentleman's 
logical  laughter?  I  never  claimed,  because  of  its 
smallness,  exemption  from  the  demands  of  cour 
age  or  in  the  arena  of  debate.  Laughter  is  health. 
It  oils  the  joints  and  the  countenance,  causing  it 
to  shine.  An  animal  that  itries  to  laugh,  like  a 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  245 

hyena,  is  specially  despised;  but  a  babe,  when  it 
first  beholds  the  sunshine,  laughs!  But  where  is 
the  point  of  making  my  small  person — though  I 
carry  the  weight  of  the  average  man,  one  hundred 
and  forty  pounds — the  butt  of  his  ridicule?  Why 
should  smallness,  in  such  an  immensity  of  crea 
tion,  and  when  everything  may  be  reduced  to 
atomies,  be  accounted  contemptible?  When  out 
comes  to  consider  all  universal  physical  relations 
— the  size,  say,  of  this  dome  and  the  goddess  on  it, 
much  bigger,  even,  than  the  gentleman,  then  of  the 
mountains  of  our  earth,  then  of  the  sun,  of  Jupiter, 
or  the  star  Sirius,  and  then  the  constellations  and 
systems  far  beyond,  pinnacled  dim  in  the  intense 
inane,  of  creation,  how  contemptible  a  member  of 
congress  seems!  Therefore,  where  or  what  is  the 
humor  of  making  a  member  of  congress  out  to  be 
little,  and  laughing  at  his  size?  What  is  there  to 
boast  of  in  this  enormity  of  flesh  and  size?  At  the 
best,  Goliah  did  not  reach  more  than  twice  as  high 
and  was  only  one-sixth  more  than  the  size  of  some 
gentlemen  here.  Lambert,  with  all  his  opulence 
of  oil,  was  only  a  poor,  weak  man,  unable  to  grasp 
what  Isaac  Newton  knew — whose  mother  put  him 
in  a  quart  cup  when  he  was  born.  Sir  Isaac  New 
ton!  Does  the  gentleman  think  he  could  get  into 
such  a  cup?  Why  then,  why  should  the  spirit  ot 
mortal  be  proud?  Proud  flesh  is  not  a  sign  ot 
health.  I  endeavor  to  debate  here  impersonally; 
never  refuse  to  yield;  never  invade  another's  right ; 
always  consider  my  person  almost  an  abstraction. 
I  am  not  proud  of  my  appearance  as  some  men  are 
who  swell.  Why,  sir,  I  argued  against  making  con 
gress  too  big  ten  years  ago.  Two  hundred  and 
fifty  was  enough.  Had  I  known  the  advent  of  this 


246  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

leviathan  into  our  troubled  waters,  I  should  have 
favored  two  hundred  as  our  number.  But  that  is 
to  be  settled  next  year.  Corpulency  is  not 
strength.  Let  us  remember  that!" 

It  is  needless  to  add  that  Mr.  Cox  was  not 
troubled  again  from  that  quarter. 

As  to  Mr.  Cox's  methodical  habits,  his  long-time 
friend  and  associate  in  congress,  Mr.  Holman,  of 
Indiana,  said:  "No  man  in  our  period  equaled  him 
in  readiness  for  any  question  that  might  arise.  He 
was  a  man  of  the  most  precise  method  and  order. 
His  desk  in  the  House  was  so  methodically  ar 
ranged,  tha)t  even  in  the  heat  of  an  unexpected 
debate  he  could  lay  his  hand  at  once  on  any  paper 
which  had  been  carefully  laid  aside  for  an  emer 
gency.  Swift  as  a  flash  of  lightning,  the  clipping 
from  a  newspaper,  or  a  public  document,  or  a  care 
fully  preserved  letter  would  come  forth  to  con 
found  the  incautious  adversary.  In  ithose  sudden 
emergencies,  which  have  so  often  arisen  in  Con 
gress,  especially  in  times  of  public  disorder  in 
former  years,  when  his  party  was  fiercely  assailed 
by  ithe  powerful  majority,  the  eyes  of  his  political 
associates  always  turned  to  Mr.  Cox  as  one  of  their 
number  best  prepared  to  repel  the  assault." 

Of  the  power  'he  ^wielded  by  his  oratory,  one  of 
his  Congressional  associates,  Mr.  Caruth,  of  Ken 
tucky,  said:  "What  a  master  of  oratory  he  was! 
I  have  seen  the  House  almost  as  tempestuous  as 
the  sea  in  a  storm  stilled  to  silence  by  the  rising  of 
his  form  from  the  midst  of  the  tumult,  the  lifting 
of  his  hand  with  his  familiar  gesture,  and  the  ut 
terance  of  his  <Mr.  Speaker.'  I  have  seen  the  busy 
men  of  the  House  drop  their  pens  and  leave  their 
desks  to  gather  about  him  that  they  might  hear 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  247 

what  he  had  to  say.  I  have  seen  the  lobbies  de 
serted,  the  cloak  rooms  emptied,  even  the  seduc 
tive  restaurant  ignored,  the  seats  of  the  chamber- 
filled,  because  'Sunset  Cox'  held  the  floor.  I  have 
seen  the  faces  w'hich  were  almost  distorted  with 
partisan  passion,  in  the  fierce  hours  of  political 
conflict,  smoothed  to  pleasant  humor  by  the  poten 
cy  of  his  speech." 

In  a  like  vein,  General  Wheeler,  ("Fighting  Jo") 
of  Alabama,  said:  "His  humor  always  did  good 
and  never  harm.  He  seldom  used  (this  faculty 
merely  for  the  purpose  of  amusing  his  audience, 
but  put  it  into  play  when  it  was  evident  that,  by 
so  doing,  a  desired,  and  frequently  a  very  impor 
tant  object  could  be  attained.  We  all  remember 
how  often  he  quelled  a  storm  in  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  by  some  pleasant  witticism,  almost 
instantly  changing  the  scene  from  one  of  angry 
dispute  to  one  of  most  pleasant  hilarity.  It  is  a 
mistake  to  Bay  that  this  detracted  in  any  way  from 
Mr.  Cox's  dignity  or  the  great  esteem  which  was 
universally  felt  for  him.  That  he  would  have  hon 
ored  the  presidency,  no  one  who  knew  him  would 
for  a  moment  doubt.  No  one  of  his  time  was  better 
equipped  than  he,  with  regard  to  all  matters  of 
government,  and  in  general  information  and 
knowledge  of  politics  and  history  the  superiority 
of  his  attainments  was  remarkable.  I  doubt  if 
any  member  of  either  House  of  Congress  ever 
equalled  Mr.  Cox  as  a  worker." 

Senator  Voorhees,  of  Indiana,  in  his  eulogy, 
related  an  incident  illustrative  of  the  affection 
with  which  Mr.  Cox  was  remembered  by  his  old 
friends  in  Ohio.  He  had  been  recalled  to  Zanes- 
ville  on  a  sad  errand — the  death  of  his  father. 


248  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

"During  his  melancholy  sojourn  of  a  few  days  at 
Zanesville,"  said  Senator  Voorhees,  "he  concluded 
to  run  down  to  Columbus,  and  it  so  happened  that 
Mr.  Pendleton,  Mr.  Vallandig*ham  and  myself  were 
on  the  train  with  him.  It  was  not  generally 
known  that  Mr.  Cox  was  then  in  the  State,  and 
least  of  all  was  he  expected  at  Columbus  that  day. 
When  the  train  arrived,  a  concourse  of  people, 
with  music  and  banners,  was  ait  the  depot  to  wel 
come  those  of  the  party  who  were  expected.  All 
at  once,  as  we  emerged  from  the  cars,  an  intent 
look  came  into  every  eye  in  that  multitude,  and 
then  a  jubilant,  prolonged  shout  rent  'the  air.  The 
brilliant  Buckeye  was  discovered  by  his  old  neigh- 
bors  and  constituents,  and  in  an  instant  everybody 
was  forgotten  but  him.  It  was  his  first  return, 
after  going  out  from  their  midst,  and  taking  up  a 
new  home.  He  managed  to  get  from  the  cars  to  a 
carriage,  but  loving  hands  lifted  him  out  of  it.  I 
have  witnessed  many  an  ovation  to  popular  party 
leaders,  but  never  anything  like  the  intense  per 
sonal  devotion,  affection  and  love,  displayed  on 
this  occasion.  The  last  I  saw  of  him,  many  hours 
afterward,  was  as  he  stood  bareheaded  in  the 
street,  surrounded  by  a  surging  multitude  of  men, 
women  and  children,  who  were  shouting,  laughing, 
crying,  and  clinging  to  him.  His  own  eyes  were 
suffused,  his  face  was  pale,  and  his  lips  trembled, 
though  wreathed  with  smiles  of  rapture  at  his  un 
expected  and  wonderful  welcome." 

Many  another  like  instance  miglilt  be  given, 
showing  the  strength  of  the  popular  affection  for 
this  tribune  of  the  people. 


CHAPTER   XXXII. 

AS  AN  AUTHOR  AND  TRAVELER. 

With  a  rare  gift  of  language  were  coupled  in  Mr. 
Oox,  the  ambition  and  the  requisite  energy  to  excel 
in  the  use  of  that  gift.  He  wrote  poetry,  while  in 
college,  to  improve  his  style.  He  allowed  no  op 
portunity  for  improvement  or  advancement  to  go 
by.  We  find  him,  even  in  his  college  days,  an  ac 
cepted  contributor  to  the  Knickerbocker  Maga 
zine,  then  the  best  of  American  periodicals.  His 
interesting  "Chapter  on  Fallacies,"  in  which  it  was 
sought  to  show  the  influence  of  fallacies  on  morals, 
first  appeared  in  the  Knickerbocker,  in  1847.  In 
the  same  magazine,  in  1851,  appeared  "Crossing 
the  Border,"  a  description  of  the  borderland  be 
tween  England  and  Scotland,  with  a  Sunday 
morning  in  the  old  York  Minster. 

In  1S54,  Mr.  Cox,  in  response  to  the  solicitation 
of  thepublishers,  contributed  to  the  Knickerbocker 
Gallery,  a  volume  of  choice  miscellany,  the  proceeds 
from  whose  publication  were  to  go  for  the  erection 
of  a  cottage,  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson,  for  the 
Knickerbocker's  former  editor,  Lewis  Gaylord 
Clark.  "The  Satanic  in  Literature"  was  the  sub 
ject,  and  in  it  Mr.  Cox  recalled  in  his  humorous 
way  some  of  the  notable  shapes  in  which  his  Sa 
tanic  majesty  appears  in  literature. 

If  a  man's  rank  is  to  be  judged  by  the  company 


250  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

he  keeps,  Mr.  Cox's  place  in  American  literature 
was  already,  at  that  early  day,  well  assured.  The 
galaxy  of  bright  and  particular  stars  in  which  his 
star  shone  undimmed,  included  Irving  (Whose  con 
tribution  was  given  first  place),  Longfellow,  Hal- 
leek,  Boker,  Bryant,  Willis,  Stoddard,  Lowell, 
Holmes,  Curtis,  Bayard  Taylor,  Donald  G.  Mitchell, 
William  H.  Seward,  Samuel  Osgood,  Epes  Sargent 
and  John  W.  Francis — now  nearly  all  gone. 

But  even  before  the  publication  of  the  Knick 
erbocker  Gallery,  Mr.  Cox  had  produced  the  first 
of  his  fascinating  books  of  travel,  with  the  title  of 
"A  Buckeye  Abroad."  It  consisted  of  impressions 
of  his  trip,  made  after  his  marriage,  through  Eu 
rope. 

In  the  preface,  dated  January  1, 1852,  he  writes, 
hoping  "that  it  may  be  read  as  it  is  written,  more- 
for  enjoyment  than  profit."  It  was  not  without 
some  profit,  however,  for  in  1860  a  seventh  edition 
was  issued — the  best  evidence  of  the  popular  favor 
with  which  it  was  received. 

Busy  years  of  Congressional  activity  followed. 
It  was  a  time  for  action  ralther  than  for  writing, 
and  Mr.  Cox's  literary  work  took  the  form  of  writ 
ing  speeches.  With  the  close  of  the  Civil  War, 
however,  supposing  his  public  life  to  be  over,  he 
published,  in  1865,  his  "Eight  Years  in  Congress." 
It  was  prepared  at  the  request  of  his  "constituents 
in  Ohio,"  to  whom  the  book  is  inscribed  "as  a  token 
of  esteem  and  gratitude."  It  consists  of  extracts 
from  his  speeches  and  especially  those  on  finance 
and  tariff;  those  that  display  the  sedition  and  sec 
tionalism  of  the  North ;  those  connected  with  ques 
tions  of  fugitives  from  foreign  lands  and  the  right 
of  asylum;  those  on  foreign  affairs;  a  eulogy  on 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  251 

Stephen  A.  Douglas;  speeches  on  matters  growing 
out  of  secession  and  the  war;  a  speech  on  the 
amendment  of  the  Constitution  abolishing  slavery, 
and  on  the  question  of  admitting  the  Cabinet  into 
Congress. 

To  the  student  of  those  times  the  book  contains 
much  that  is  of  interest  as  showing  the  views  of  a 
representative  citizen  of  the  period  who  was  not 
an  extremist  of  either  party.  They  are  the 
thoughtful  opinions  of  a  conservative  man,  and 
after  a  lapse  of  thirty  years,  it  is,  to  say  the  least, 
curious  to  see  how  nearly  right,  in  the  light  of  his 
tory,  Mr.  Cox  was. 

In  1868,  close  confinement  to  professional 
duties,  with  failing  health  as  a  consequence,  led 
Mr.  Cox  to  seek  recuperation  in  a  trip  to  the  south 
of  Europe  and  North  of  Africa.  His  experiences 
and  observations  under  the  title  of  "Search  for 
Winter  Sunbeams  on  the  Riviera,  Corsica.  Algiers, 
and  Spain,"  were  given  to  the  public  in  1870.  The 
volume  is  dedicated  to  his  "Constituents  of  the 
Sixth  Congressional  District  of  the  City  of  New 
York."  "These  Sunbeams  of  Travel,"  he  writes 
"were  made  bright  by  your  confidence  and  cheer 
ful  by  your  indulgence;  without  which  I  could  not 
have  pursued  them,  into  far  and  almost  untrodden 
path® — in  search  of  the  health  so  needed  and  I 
trust,  secured,  for  the  duty  which  you  have  de 
volved  upon  me." 

He  spent  pleasant,  sunshiny  days  in  Nice,  in 
Cannes,  in  Hyeres,  in  Mentone,  and  in  Monaco — 
that  paradise  of  climate  and  beauty,  and  hell  of 
gambling.  Then  crossing  the  blue  Mediterranean 
he  spento  some  time  in  Corsica,  visiting  the  home  of 


252  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

Napoleon  and  studying  the  quaint  habits  of  the 
people  of  this  out-of-the-way  island.  From  Ajac- 
cio  he  returned  to  Nice  and  thence  by  steamer 
from  Marseilles  to  Algiers. 

A  new  continent  with  its  ancient  civilization 
was  before  him,  and  views  of  Arabic,  Turkish,  or 
Moorish  life  were  opened  to  him.  Notwithstand 
ing  the  dolce  far  niente  of  the  Orient  he  was  active 
in  studying  the  institutions  and  the  customs  of  the 
people.  He  tells  of  the  quaint  architecture,  the 
religious  ceremonies,  the  theatres  and  entertain 
ments,  and  the  domestic  habits  of  the  people. 
He  even  extends  his  journey  to  the  edge  of  the 
great  desert,  passing  through  the  valleys  of  Kaly- 
bes,  and  learning  on  the  way  the  mysteries  of  rid 
ing  on  camel-back. 

Leaving  the  Arabs  and  their  decadence,  he  turns 
northward  and  makes  his  way  toward  the  Iberian 
peninsula,  where  the  remains  of  the  Moor  in  his 
greatness  are  found  in  such  rich  abundance. 

He  speaks  of  "a  ring  of  cities,  full  gemmed," 
in  his  memory,  and  he  saw  them  all — Oarthagena, 
Alicante,  Valencia,  Murcia,  Grenada,  Malaga, 
Seville,  Toledo,  Cordova,  Madrid  and  Saragossa. 
The  Alhambra  of  Grenada,  the  Alcazar  of  Seville, 
and  the  aqueduct  of  Cordova  are  among  the  mas 
terpieces  of  architetcure  that  he  studied  and  ad 
mired.  He  listened  to  the  music  of  the  castanets 
and  the  guitar  in  Murcia,  and  when  not  occupied 
with  the  Cortes  in  Madrid,  he  walked  the  galleries 
of  the  Escuriel — the  mausoleum  of  Spain's  great 
est  heroes — looking  at  the  rich  paintings  of  Mur- 
illo  and  other  famous  artists  of  Spain,  or  else  wit 
nessing  the  bloody  bull  fights  of  the  metropolis. 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  253 

Malaga  with  its  wine  and  its  grapes,  and  Saragossa 
with  its  history  appealed  to  him  as  only  can  a  well 
digested  meal  to  a  bon  viveur.  He  knew  the 
country  from  his  extensive  reading  and  enjoyed  it 
accordingly. 

Spain,  at  the  time  of  Mr.  Cox's  visit  had  but 
recently  sent  her  infamous  Isabella  across  the 
frontier  and  under  the  leadership  of  the  distin 
guished  Prim,  was  making  her  experiment  with  a 
Republican  form  of  a  government.  Our  author, 
who  was  in  Madrid  when  the  new  Constitution 
was  adopted,  takes  advantage  of  the  occasion  to 
express  his  views  on  the  situation. 

At  the  end  of  two  months,  warned  by  the  sum 
mer's  heat,  he  reluctantly  left  St.  Sebastian,  the 
last  of  the  important  railway  stations  in  Spain, 
and  crossed  the  Pyrenees  into  France.  After  a 
brief  rest  at  Biarritz  on  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  with  its 
health-restoring  climate,  he  hastened  to  England 
and  then  home. 

The  remarkable  memory,  coupled  with  the  gen 
ius  for  compilation  posessed  by  Mr.  Cox  is  fully 
shown  in  that  most  amusing  book  entitled,  "Why 
We  Laugh."  The  purpose  of  the  work  is  indicated 
in  the  preface,  which  says:  "The  idea  which 
prompted  this  volume  was  to  string  such  humors 
as  were  illustrative  upon  some  philosophic  threads 
which  had  been  floating  in  my  mind."  It  consists 
essentially  of  amusing  incidents  and  anecdotes, 
chiefly  American,  grouped  under  various  head 
ings,  and  for  the  most  part  from  political  or  legis 
lative  sources.  In  the  chapter  devoted  to  early 
American  humor  he  introduces  several  stories  that 
go  back  to  the  time  of  the  first  Congress,  and  in- 


254  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

deed  from  then  on,  no  bit  of  humor  that  was  ever 
uttered  in  either  branch  of  Congress  seems  to  have 
escaped  his  notice.  The  book  was  so  successful 
that  in  1880  an  entire  new  edition  was  issued  to 
which  Mr.  Cox  added  a  chapter  descriptive  of  Irish 
humor. 

Of  Mr.  Cox's  published  works,  the  next  in  chro 
nological  order  was  a  small  square  octavo,  entit 
led:  "Free  Land  and  Free  Trade.  The  Lessons  of 
the  English  Corn  Laws  applied  to  the  United 
Staites."  It  was  published  in  1880. 

The  shock  of  the  financial  crisis  that  came  in 
1873,  and  continued  during  the  decade  that  ended 
in  1880,  gave  rise  to  many  discussions  as  to  its 
causes  by  the  thinking  men  of  the  nation.  Mr. 
Cox's  long  experience  in  public  matters  and  his 
knowledge  of  political  conditions  led  him  to  be 
lieve  that  a  revision  of  the  tariff  laws  was  the  pan 
acea  that  would  cure  the  ills  resulting  from  finan 
cial  depression. 

His  contention  was  that  "our  amazing  nat 
ural  wealth  is  compelling  us  to  alternatives  of 
yielding  the  policy  of  selfishness  (i.  e.  manufacture 
for  home  production  only)  or  being  choked  with 
our  own  abundance,"  and  "we  cannot  sell  without 
buying,"  hence,  the  free  entry  into  the  country  of 
raw  materials  was  essential  so  that  we  might  sell 
our  manufactured  products  at  the  lowest  price. 

To  prove  this  thesis  he  discussed  the  origin  and 
development  of  the  Corn  Laws  in  England,  which, 
by  the  way,  was  the  subject  of  his  prize  essay  in 
the  department  of  political  economy,  while  he  was 
a  student  in  Brown  University — and  further,  tak 
ing  the  condition  of  Ireland  as  his  text,  he  argued 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  255 

that  free  land,  accompanied  by  free  trade  was  nec 
essary  to  produce  the  best  results. 

His  conclusions  were  that  "the  triumph  of  free 
land  and  free  trade  carries  with  it  everywhere  the 
blessings,  and  marks  the  boundaries  of  civiliza 
tion,"  and  finally  "when  that  supremacy  is  accom 
plished  the  plough  will  be  as  free  as  the  soil,  and 
the  land  and  all  the  inhabitants  thereof  will  re 
joice  in  'that  liberty  which  is  the  exaltation  of  in 
dividual  and  national  life." 

After  several  years  of  exacting  attention  to  his 
duties  in  Congress,  rest  and  change  again  became 
necessary.  Early  in  1881,  therefore,  he  sailed  for 
another  trip  to  the  Old  World.  The  story  of  his 
travels  is  stold  in  two  volumes,  the  first  of  which 
he  called  "Arctic  Sunbeams,  or  from  Broadway  to 
the  Bosphorus  by  Way  of  the  North  Cape."  It 
was  published  in  1882. 

The  story  begins  with  his  arrival  in  Holland, 
whence,  after  studying  the  peculiar  characteris 
tics  of  the  Dutch  people,  he  goes  to  Denmark.  At 
Copenhagen  he  takes  the  boat  across  the  Sound  to 
Malmo  in  Norway  and  is  soon  in  Christiana.  Still 
farther  northward  he  goes  and  as  the  hot  days  of 
July  come  he  is  cool  and  comfortable  within  the 
Arctic  circle.  The  most  northerly  point  that  he 
visits  is  North  Cape,  from  which  he  looks  out  on 
the  great  North  Ocean  and  watches  the  rising  of 
the  midnight  sun. 

Thence  his  journey  is  continued  south 
ward  through  Lapland  and  Norway  again  to  Swe 
den.  Reluctantly  he  leaves  the  Scandinavian  pe 
ninsula  and  crosses  the  Baltic  to  Finland.  From 
Helsingfors  he  goes  to  St.  Petersburg  by  boat,  and 
he  devotes  much  time  to  the  attractions  of  the 


256  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

great  capital  of  the  north.  The  city  of  the  White 
Czar  has  for  him  a  fascination,  and  he  lingers  con 
tentedly  there  until  the  time  arrives  to  continue 
the  journey  southward.  Moscow,  with  its  cathe 
drals  and  its  memories  of  Napoleon,  is  a  stopping 
point  on  the  way  to  Odessa  on  the  Black  Sea; 
thence  the  swift  steamer  of  the  packet  line  takes 
him  to  Constantinople. 

The  second  volume,  "Orient  Sunbeams,  or  from 
the  Porte  to  the  Pyramids,  by  way  of  Palestine," 
appeared  in  the  same  year  as  its  companion. 

After  the  long  wandering  in  the  harsh  northern 
climes,  Mr.  Cox  was  glad  of  the  opportunity  to 
spend  several  weeks  in  resting.  Part  of  his  time 
was  occupied  in  visiting  his  old  friend,  Gen.  Lew 
Wallace,  then  American  minister  to  Turkey.  Dur 
ing  this  period  he  improved  his  opportunities  by 
making  excursions  in  the  vicinity  of  Constanti 
nople  and  in  noting  the  changes  that  had  occurred 
in  the  metropolis  on  the  Golden  Horn  since  his 
first  visit  to  it,  thirty  years  previous.  Having  to 
ward  the  close  of  his  stay  been  presented  to  the 
Sultan,  he  soon  after  passed  through  the  Dardan 
elles  into  the  Mediterranean  on  his  way  to  Smyrna. 
Short  side  trips  were  made  to  the  classic  city  of 
Ephesus,  to  Chios,  and  the  Isles  of  Greece.  Then 
he  journeyed  southward  to  Damascus,  with  its 
vanished  winders  and  glories,  its  walls  and  tombs. 
Of  course  Jaffa,  with  its  Biblical  memories,  was 
not  passed  by.  Three  chapters  are  devoted  to 
Bethlehem,  Jerusalem  and  Bethany,  in  which  the 
incidents  of  the  birth,  death  and  ascension  of  our 
Lord,  as  related  in  Holy  Writ,  are  recalled.  The 
pleasant  days  of  the  late  autumn  are  devoted  to 
a  brief  visit  to  Egypt.  In  a  week,  all  too  short,  he 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  257 

travels  from  Alexandria  to  Cairo — the  pyramids, 
the  Sphynx,  and  the  tombs  of  the  oldest  civiliza 
tion  that  the  world  now  knows,  are  visited.  And 
so  the  journey  ends. 

These  two  volumes,  word  pictures,  together  con 
stitute  a  series  of  entertaining,  thoughtful  and 
agreeable  sketches  of  the  interesting  and  historic 
places  visited. 

In  1883  there  was  issued  from  Washington  a 
series  of  seven  "Memorial  Eulogies  delivered  in 
the  House  of  Represent  a  it  ives  of  the  United  States  by 
Samuel  S.  Cox,  member  from  Ohio  and  New  York, 
1861-1883."  These  addresses  formed  an  octavo  vol 
ume  of  86  pages,  which  was  illustrated  with  en 
graved  portraits  on  steel  of  the  distinguished 
statesmen  eulogized.  The  group  included  the  rec 
ords  of  men  famous  in  the  history  of  our  country. 
The  first,  delivered  in  1861,  was  on  Stephen  A. 
Douglas,  the  great  leader  of  his  party  in  the  Pres 
idential  canvass  that  preceded  the  Civil  War,  and 
who  died  just  as  the  new  administration  which  his 
followers  had  hoped  would  be  his  own,  was  inau 
gurated.  This  was  followed  by  an  address  on  Sam 
uel  Finley  Breeze  Morse,  who,  persistent  in  his 
faith  in  the  new  science  of  electricity,  overcame 
all  obstacles  until  the  electric  message  made  com 
munication  between  continents  instantaneous. 

Then  came  eulogies  on  two  friends  who  were 
near  and  dear  to  him.  The  first  was  on  Michael 
C.  Kerr,  a  member  of  the  House  of  Kepresentatives 
from  Indiana,  and  who  for  a  short  time  served  as 
speaker  of  the  House.  The  other  was  on  Julian 
Hartridge,  a  member  from  Georgia  and  a  friend 
of  his  college  days  in  Brown. 

Mr.  Cox  was  for  many  years   a  regent   of   the 


258          QAMUEL  SULLIVAN  cox 

Smithsonian  Institution,  and  in  its  development 
he  took  the  greatest  interest.  It  was  therefore 
eminently  fitting  that*  the  memorial  address  in 
Congress  on  Joseph  Henry,  its  first  Secretary, 
should  be  delivered  by  one  whose  friendship  for 
science  led  to  his  close  association  with  the  Smith 
sonian.  He  told  of  Henry  how  "with  unblemished 
eye,  like  the  eagle,  his  scientific  ken  gazed  into  the 
sun  itself  for  its  revelation;  and  yet  he  nestled, 
dove-like,  amidst  his  human  domestic  affections," 
and  that  "his  processes  of  thought  were  chastened 
by  his  Christ-like  life  and  heavenly  faith;  and  he 
has  his  reward  in  eternal  bliss." 

The  next  eulogy  is  on  George  S.  Houston,  a  Rep- 
resentative  from  Alabama  and  long  chairman  of 
the  Committee  on  Ways  and  Means.  Last  of  all  in 
this  brief  collection  is  a  splendid  eulogy  of  that 
eloquent  Georgian  and  Senator,  Benjamin  H.  Hill, 
whose  magnificent  courage  in  continuing  at  his 
post  when  overcome  by  a  fatal  disease  gained  for 
him  the  homage  of  his  countrymen. 

The  next  book  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Cox  was  an 
important  contribution  to  the  history  of  his  time, 
entitled  "Three  Decades  of  Federal  Legislation, 
1855  to  1885."  In  this  elaborate  volume  he  re 
calls  and  reviews  the  memorable  events  preced 
ing,  during  and  since,  the  American  Civil  War,  in 
volving  slavery  and  secession,  emancipation  and 
reconstruction,  with  sketches  of  prominent  actors 
during  these  periods.  The  book  is  a  large  octavo 
volume  of  725  pages. 

The  Republican  party  came  into  existence  in 
Pittsburg  in  1855,  and  Mr.  Cox  was  first  elected  to 
Congress  the  year  after.  The  first  of  his  three 
"decades"  is  therefore  that  from  1855  to  1865,  and 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  259 

includes  the  history  of  the  events  that  led  to  the 
organization  of  the  Republican  party,  together 
with  a  succinct  account  of  the  Civil  War. 

The  second  decade  deals  chiefly  with  the  period 
of  reconstruction  and  carries  the  reader  from  the 
death  of  the  martyred  Lincoln  in  1865  to  the  begin 
ning  of  the  Centennial  year,  1876.  The  outrages  of 
the  Ku-Klux-Klan  and  the  abuse  of  power  by  the 
government  formed  in  the  Southern  states  by 
Northern  adventurers,  receive  full  consideration 
in  his  discussion  of  the  events  of  this  period. 

The  final  decade  deals  especially  with  the  re 
sults  of  reconstruction,  closing  with  the  beginning 
of  a  Democratic  administration  under  Cleveland. 
The  resumption  of  specie  payments,  the  great  cen 
sus  of  1880,  and  the  initiation  of  civil  service  re 
form,  are  the  leading  issues  that  come  under  his 
review. 

During  nearly  all  of  the  time  covered  by  the 
events  described  in  this  book  Mr.  Cox  was  active 
in  public  life.  It  was  his  fortune  to  mingle  with 
public  men  of  every  shade  of  opinion,  "  men  "  as 
he  himself  says,  "in  every  variety  of  public  and 
private  employment  and  every  quality  and  grade 
of  character."  From  these  and  from  "decrees  of 
state,  and  even  the  'columns  of  the  sepulchers,'  as 
well  as  from  the  controversies  of  contending  par 
ties,"  he  gathered  the  material  from  which  he  pre 
pared  this  most  valuable  history. 

Throughout  his  public  career,  Mr.  Cox,  as  his 
ancestors  for  two  generations  before  him,  never 
changed  his  first  unwavering  trust  in  the  princi 
ples  of  that  party  of  which  he  was  so  able  a  rep 
resentative,  and  throughout  the  book  he  endeavors 
to  show  and  emphasize  that  which  he  says  "he 


260  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

never  ceased  to  believe,"  and  which  in  1885,  as  the 
book  came  from  the  press,  seemed  almost  to  be 
realized,  namely,  "that  the  party  of  constitutional 
limits,  strict  construction,  state  sovereignty,  and 
federal  unity  would  be  found  indispensable  in  the 
end  to  honest  and  united  government."  And  fin 
ally  he  adds:  "As  this  strange  eventful  period  of 
history  is  concluding,  that  party  is  reascending  to 
political  prominence,  by  the  inauguration  of  its 
recently  elected  chief  magistrate,  purified  by  the 
ordeal  fires  which  only  added  to  its  invincible 
strength." 

It  will  be  remembered  that  with  the  advent  of 
Mr.  Cleveland's  administration,  Mr.  Cox  was  ten 
dered  the  diplomatic  mission  to  Turkey.  This  honor 
he  accepted  and  for  two  years  Constantinople  was 
his  official  home. 

On  his  return  to  the  United  S,tates,  his  ever 
facile  pen  found  congenial  employment  in  writing 
the  "Diversions  of  a  Diplomat."  This  work,  which 
he  dedicated  by  permission  "To  His  Majesty  Ab 
dul  Hamid  II.,"  was  published  in  New  York  in 
1887  and  covered  685  pages. 

It  is  simply  the  written  record  of  his  impres 
sions  accompanied  by  pertinent  comments  and  ex 
planations.  He  tells  of  his  journey  to  Constan 
tinople,  his  reception  by  the  Sultan,  the  social  life 
of  the  Turks  and  their  diplomatic  conditions.  The 
history  of  the  Ottoman  Empire — its  origin  and 
development — the  various  race  influences  that 
have  brought  it  to  its  present  condition,  the  many 
religions,  including,  of  course,  the  Moslem,  the 
Greek,  the  Armenian,  and  the  work  of  the  Ameri 
can  Protestant  Missions,  the  Turkish  language 
and  literature,  its  wit  and  humor,  as  well  as  the 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  261 

stories  of  the  East,  or  fables  which  are  transmitted 
from  father  to  son,  the  life  of  the  people,  their  di 
versions  and  pleasures,  and  their  home  life,  in 
cluding  the  education  of  children  and  the  secrets 
of  the  harem;  all  these  and  still  others  are  among 
the  fruitful  themes  which  he  presents  for  the  ben 
efit  of  his  reader. 

He  enters  also  into  a  philosophic  discussion  of 
the  political  conditions  of  the  Balkan  peninsula, 
the  growth  of  Bulgaria,  Servia,  Roumania,  and 
other  vassal  states,  the  influence  of  Russia,  and 
the  ultimate  fate  of  Turkey.  These  problems  are 
discussed  with  the  ripe  knowledge  of  an  experi 
enced  diplomat. 

As  a  supplement  to  the  "Diversions"  last  named 
Mr.  Cox  wrote  "The  Isles  of  the  Princes;  or  the 
Pleasures  of  Prinkipo,"  recording  a  summer's  ex 
perience  among  the  Princes  Isles,  in  the  old  Pro- 
pontis. 

"These  Isles  of  the  Princes,"  writes  Mr.  Cox,  "lie 
in  sight  of  Stamboul  and  its  splendors,  and  of  the 
Mountains  of  Asia,  dominated  by  the  Mysean 
Olympus.  They  are  glorious  in  physical  loveli 
ness.  They  are  still  the  'Isles  of  Greece',  although 
under  Ottoman  rule.  Out  of  their  blue  waters,  at 
morn  and  eve,  the  beauty  of  the  Grecian  myth 
arises,  to  grace  the  isles  with  her  smiles.  Upon 
them  burn  'the  larger  constellations.'  They  are 
fitly  named  'Isles  of  Princes.'  Upon  them  the  pal 
aces  of  the  princes  of  old  Byzantium  were  erected. 
Here,  too,  were  their  monasteries  and  prisons. 
The  relics  of  these  lines  of  civil  and  eclesiastical 
empire  are  nearly  all  faded;  but  the  monasteries 
of  the  orthodox  Greek  church  still  hold  here  their 


262  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

eminences,  as  well  by  virtue  of  their  antique  titles 
as  by  their  superb  situations." 

Here,  amid  such  surroundings,  he  spent  the  sum 
mer  of  1886,  and  his  book  is  a  simple  story  of  his 
excursions  in  and  around  these  islands,  as  well  as 
to  adjacent  places  in  Asia  and  Europe. 

Like  some  of  his  earlier  works,  this  volume  bears 
a  dedication.  Mentioning  that  "it  recalls  our 
pleasant  sojourn  in  those  classic  isles  and  the 
many  courtesies  bestown  upon  us — 'strangers  in  a 
strange  land/  " — he  adds :  "It  is  fit  that  to  you, 
my  dear  wife,  I  should  dedicate  this  volume,  for  if 
we  have  achieved  any  measure  of  success,  socially 
or  otherwise,  in  our  island  home,  may  I  not  say 
that  it  is  due  to  those  qualities  of  kindness  and 
complaisance  which  you  possess,  and  which 
have  made  our  lives  one  in  an  ever  increasing  cir 
cle  of  felicity?" 

In  'his  itribute  to  the  memory  of  Mr.  Oox,  Repre 
sentative  James  O'Donnell,  of  Michigan,  aptly  an 
alyzed  his  literary  work  as  follows: 

"All  his  books  are  interesting  and  instructive; 
his  writings  are  entertaining,  giving  strength  and 
knowledge.  His  industry,  information  and  dis 
crimination  are  apparent  upon  every  page,  and 
the  clear,  compact,  and  intelligent  treatment  of  all 
questions,  is  observed  in  each  chapter.  He  had 
the  happy  faculty  of  saying  things  in  a  striking 
way,  and  most  of  his  publications  are  the  product 
of  conscientious  study  and  research.  The  reader 
can  not  but  note  the  admirable  treatment  of  his 
themes,  distinguished  by  a  classic  simplicity  and 
lucidity,  clear  and  graceful,  denoting  the  intellect 
of  the  author,  strong  and  full  of  creating  force. 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  263 

His  historical  works  illustrate  the  experience  and 
learning  that  embellish  every  page;  the  events 
narrated  are  excellently  concentrated  and  con 
densed,  and  the  author  established  himself  as  a 
clear  and  vigorous  writer  and  thinker,  delighting 
all  with  his  extensive  culture,  discernment,  and 
superior  taste.  His  latest  volumes  exhibit  the 
same  polish,  breadth,  and  thoroughness  of  prepar 
ation;  the  advancing  years  of  the  author  show  no 
deterioration  in  happy  expression,  terseness,  and 
reliable  statement.  He  exemplifies  the  saying  of 
Milton,  <a  good  book  is  the  precious  life-blood  of  a 
master  spirit  embalmed  and  treasured  up  to  a  life 
beyond.'  In  several  of  his  works  there  is  a  glow 
ing  style  and  general  admixture  of  humor  coupled 
with  profound  truths  semi-humorously  expressed. 
His  name  will  have  an  honorable  place  in  Ameri 
can  literature." 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

HIS   DEATH   AND   FUNERAL. 

Mr.  Cox  returned  to  New  York  from  Manhattan 
Beach  a  sick  man.  He  failed  rapidly  to  the  end. 
His  death  occurred  at  half  past  eight  o'clock  on 
the  evening  of  September  10,  1889 — twenty  days 
before  he  would  have  completed  his  sixty-fifth 
year.  At  that  very  hour  he  had  engaged  to  deliver 
an  address  before  the  Steckler  association  on  the 
"Wonderland" — meaning  the  Great  West  from 
which  he  had  recently  returned.  It  was  another 
and  a  greater  Wonderland  to  which  he  had  gone. 
He  passed  away  as  one  falling  into  a  gentle  sleep. 
Few  knew  of  his  illness  until  informed  of  its  fatal 
termination.  The  sad  intelligence  as  it  sped  with 
lightning  rapidity  throughout  the  great  city  and 
the  country  caused  everywhere  sincere  mourning. 
From  every  quarter  came  expressions  of  tender 
sympathy  for  the  stricken  partner  of  the  life  that 
had  gone  out.  Among  the  many  came  messages 
of  condolence  from  ex-President  Cleveland,  Vice- 
President  Morton,  Gen.  Sherman  and  Gov.  Hill. 
Ex-President  Cleveland  wrote: 

"On  my  arrival  at  home  yesterday  after  an  ex 
tended  absence,  I  was  shocked  to  learn  of  the 
death  of  your  husband.  I  cannot  refrain  from  the 
expression  of  my  deep  and  sincere  sympathy  with 
you  in  your  great  bereavement,  and  my  feeling  of 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  265 

personal  sadness  upon  the  loss  of  a  talented  friend. 
Your  husband's  honorable  career  and  the  tribute 
which  his  fellow  countrymen  will  pay  to  his  useful 
life  will  not  lessen  the  poignancy  of  your  afflic 
tion." 

The  funeral  was  under  the  direction  of  the  ser- 
geant-at-arnas  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
and  the  following  members  were  named  to  take 
charge  of  the  arrangements,  to-wit:  Messrs.  Car 
lisle,  Randall,  Holman,  Felix  Campbell,  Seney, 
Heard,  Muehler,  Kelly,  McKinley,  Cannon,  Reed, 
Burrows  and  O'Neil.  The  honorary  bearers  were 
Vice-President  Levi  P.  Morton,  ex-President  Cleve 
land,  Gen.  W.  T.  Sherman,  ex-Gov.  Hoadley  of 
Ohio,  Sumner  I.  Kimball,  Superintendent  of  the 
Life  Saving  Service,  Col.  John  A.  Cockerill,  ex- 
Chief  Justice  Charles  P.  Daly,  John  T.  Agnew,  Ed 
ward  Cahill  and  Douglas  Taylor  of  New  York,  S. 
H.  Kauffmann  of  Washington,  and  Milton  H.  Nor- 
thrup  of  Syracuse. 

The  last  rites  were  on  September  13,  in  the  First 
Presbyterian  church,  Fifth  avenue  and  Twelfth 
street.  The  profusion  of  floral  tributes  from  Let 
ter  Carriers  and  life  saving  stations  attested  the 
affection  in  which  the  deceased  statesman  was 
held.  From  the  New  York  city  Letter  Carriers 
came  a  mammoth  "Gates  Ajar,"  and  a  large  floral 
envelope,  with  "Our  Champion"  acrosss  the  face, 
and,  in  the  form  of  a  post  mark  in  the  upper  right 
hand  corner,  "New  York,  9-10-89,  8:30  p.  m."— the 
day  and  hour  of  his  death.  Brooklyn  sent  a  scroll 
of  roses  and  violets,  inscribed  "S.  S.  Cox,  cham 
pion."  Philadelphia's  floral  expression  was  "1824, 
Farewell,  1889.  He  was  our  best  friend."  The 
Boston  Carriers,  by  their  offering,  also  testified, 


266  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

"Our  Friend."  The  Life  Saving  Service  was  rep 
resented  by  a  life  belt  and  muffled  oar — on  the 
belt  the  words  "Our  Champion." 

The  services  were  conducted  by  the  blind  chap 
lain  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  Kev.  Dr.  W. 
H.  Milburn,  Rev.  Dr.  Deems,  of  the  Church  of  the 
Strangers,  and  Rev.  Dr.  T.  DeWitt  Talmage,  of 
the  Brooklyn  Tabernacle. 

No  story  of  Mr.  Cox's  life  would  be  complete 
without  a  reproduction,  at  least  in  part,  of  the  dis 
criminating  eulogies  pronounced  over  his  bier  by 
Reverends  Dr.  Milburn  and  Talmage.  Extracts 
therefrom  follow: 

(From  Rev.  Dr.  Milburn's  Eulogy.) 

Samuel  Sullivan  Cox,  the  humorist,  the  writer, 
the  speaker,  a  servant  of  the  people,  an  officer  of 
the  state,  a  most  human-hearted  man,  has  left  us, 
and  we,  the  city,  the  nation,  are  'the  poorer  for  his 
going.  There  was  in  him  a  vein  of  admirable  wit 
united  to  an  excellent  understanding  and  a  rare 
power  of  sympathetic  speech,  and  these,  with  an 
indefatigablel  industry  and  dauntless  lenergy  and 
courage,  early  in  life  brought  him  to  the  front,  and 
throughout  his  days  kept  him  there,  in  a  position 
of  influence  and  power  to  which  he  was  fully  en 
titled.  The  country  can  ill-afford  to  spare,  in 
what  should  have  been  the  maturity  of  his  man 
hood,  one  so  richly  endowed  by  nature,  labor,  large 
and  varied  experience,  whose  soul  was  wedded  to 
its  honor,  and  to  the  happiness,  interest,  and  wel 
fare  of  his  fellow  men.  As  his  friends,  we  mourn 
our  irreparable  loss,  while  the  whole  land  sorrows 
for  the  departure  of  one  of  its  most  faithful,  val 
iant  and  devoted  sons. 

Sprung  from  a  brave  old  Revolutionary  stock, 


COX'S  RESIDENCE  ON  TWELFTH  STREET,  NEW  YORK,  IN  WHICH  HE  DIED. 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  267 

born  in  Ohio,  one  of  a  family  of  fourteen  children, 
taught  from  his  earliest  days  to  work  with  persist 
ence  and  energy,  he  gained  a  university  education 
as  the  fruit  of  his  own  toil,  and  then  enlarged  his 
mind  and  quickened  his  sympathies  by  wide  travel 
making  acquaintance  with  many  climates,  cities, 
of  men,  and  governments,  and  thus  prepared  him 
self  for  the  work  he  was  to  do.  He  first  tried  his 
hand  as  a  writer  for  the  newspaper  press  and  also 
as  the  author  of  a  book  of  travels,  but  soon  entered 
the  Capitol  of  the  nation  as  a  member  of  the  House 
of  Representatives,  where  his  brilliant  parts  at 
once  gained  him  distinction. 

Throughout  his  congressional  career  of  nearly 
thirty  ears,  he  secured  and  maintained  to  the  last 
the  kindly  regard,  the  warm  admiration,  and  per 
sonal  friendship  not  only  of  his  political  associates 
but  of  the  members  on  the  other  side  of  the  floor, 
and  in  the  bead-roll  of  his  friends  and  admirers 
there  will  be  found  as  many  opponents  as  members 
of  his  own  party.  Trenchant  and  powerful  in  de 
bate,  he  used  the  weapons  of  research,  clear  state 
ment,  argument,  keen  wit,  and  an  ever-present 
humor,  and  wherever  he  inflicted  wounds  they 
were  always  salved  by  kindness  and  mirth,  and  all 
canker  was  removed. 

Earnest  in  his  political  convictions  and  ardent 
in  their  advocacy,  he  was  yet  more  earnest  and  ar 
dent  in  matters  outside  of  politics  that  concerned 
the  happiness  of  his  fellow  men.  Notable  illus 
trations  of  this  are  found  in  our  Life  Saving  Ser 
vice,  of  which  he  may  be  said  to  be  the  father,  and 
in  his  championship  of  the  cause  of  the  hard- 
worked  and  underpaid  clerks  and  carriers  of  the 


268  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

postal  service.  His  best  and  highest  public  utter 
ances,  which  had  the  whole  force  of  his  character 
in  them,  were  in  behalf  of  a  larger  toleration,  a 
sweeter  and  more  practical  humanity. 

When  one  reviews  his  work  in  Congress,  and 
knows  the  immense  labors  he  performed  there,  in 
the  profound  study  of  all  questions  vital  to  the 
nation's  welfare,  in  committees,  on  the  floor,  and 
at  the  Departments,  it  would  seem  enough  to  tax 
any  man's  utmost  strength  and  fill  his  whole  time; 
yet  such  was  his  unwearied  industry  and  elastic 
energy,  that  he  managed  to  write  book  after  book 
which  have  instructed  and  delighted  great  bodies 
of  readers  by  their  intelligence,  vivacity,  their  wis 
dom,  humor  and  wit. 

I  must  leave  it  to  others,  to  his  colleagues  in 
Congress,  to  speak  of  his  political  services  and  the 
debt  of  gratitude  the  country  owes  his  memory. 
This  place  is  sacred  to  >tihe  consideration  of  charac 
ter.  How  did  he  use  those  extraordinary  talents 
which  he  possessed?  Were  they  for  himself  su 
premely?  A  less  selfish  man  than  Samuel  Sulli 
van  Cox  has  never  appeared  in  the  political  life 
of  his  country.  Ho  had  a  large  heart,  tender  sym 
pathies,  a  kind  appreciation,  and  a  power  to  inter 
pret  the  character  of  all  with  whom  he  came  in 
contact.  Noble  as  was  his  head,  his  heart  was 
still  nobler;  and  throughout  his  career  he  strove  to 
help,  to  cheer,  to  befriend  those  who  were  in  need 
of  his  friendship.  There  was  a  light  in  his  eye,  a 
music  in  his  voice,  a  grasp  in  the  hand,  a  cheerful 
ness  of  speech,  a  heartiness  of  manner,  which  lift 
ed  burdens  from  the  shoulders  of  those  who  came 
near  him.  His  honor  was  unstained.  Although 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  269 

he  was  connected  with  the  politics  of  this  city  and 
of  the  country  in  their  darkest  hours,  when  corrup 
tion  ran  riot  and  the  infamous  scramble  for  place 
and  pelf  was  common,  the  pitch  never  defiled  him, 
his  good  name  was  never  assailed  even  by  the 
tongue  of  scandal.  He  bore  himself  with  a  lofty 
rectitude;  his  integrity  was  incorruptible. 

Amid  the  dance  of  society,  the  roar  of  business, 
the  greed  for  office  and  money,  we  pause  beside 
this  coffin  in  the  stillness  of  this  sacred  place  to 
recall  the  form  and  features  of  one  whose  nature 
was  large  enough  to  offer  the  generous  hospitality 
of  recognition  and  sympathy  to  all  sorts  and  con 
ditions  of  men,  whether  they  were  Roman  Catholic 
or  Protestant,  Jew  or  Mohammedan;  and  who  in 
the  battle  of  life  ever  struck  with  all  his  might  for 
the  cause  of  the  true,  the  right,  the  good.  One 
who  knew  him  best  has  assured  me  that  his  piety 
towards  God  was  as  genuine,  deep,  and  reverent 
as  his  charity  towards  his  fellow  men  was  large, 
unaffected  and  fervent.  He  drew  the  inspiration 
of  his  conduct  and  character  from  the  truths  and 
faith  of  our  holy  religion. 

This  man  bore  himself  to  the  age  of  three-score 
years  and  five,  not  only  untainted  by  the  world, 
but  unworried  with  it.  No  frown  of  discontent, 
no  scowl  of  misanthropy,  was  ever  seen  upon  his 
brow;  no  complaint  of  the  emptiness  of  the  world 
or  of  its  vanity  was  prompted  by  that  cheery 
heart.  He  wrought  for  the  welfare  of  others,  and 
in  so  doing  found  his  own,  for  love  is  its  own  ex 
ceeding  great  reward. 

(From  Eev.  Dr.  Talmage's  Address.) 
"The  nation  weeps.    What  a  wide,  deep,  awful 


270          SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  cox 

vacuum  the  departure  of  such  a  man  as  Samuel  S. 
Cox  leaves  in  the  world !  We  shall  not  see  his  like 
again.  It  will  be  useless  to  try  to  describe  to  an 
other  generation  who  or  what  he  was  like.  He  was 
the  first  and  the  last  of  that  kind  of  man.  He  was 
without  predecessor  and  will  be  without  suc 
cessor.  What  a  genial,  gracious,  magnificent  soul 
he  was!  And  every  year  he  lived  made  to  the 
world  a  new  revelation  of  his  admirable  qualities. 
Within  the  past  few  weeks  I  traveled  in  his  wake 
across  the  American  continent,  and  I  heard  every 
where  of  the  ovations  he  had  received  and  the 
superb  impressions  he  had  made,  cities  and  terri 
tories  and  states  casting  their  crowns  at  his  feet. 

"And  while  these  tempests  are  raging  on  land 
and  sea  and  the  life-saving  stations  have  rescued, 
within  a  few  hours,  the  crews  of  thirty  ships,  we 
are  called  upon  to  perform  the  last  office  over  the 
body  of  him  who  was  the  chief  champion  of  that 
national  benevolence  for  which  every  sailor  on  the 
seas  feels  thankful. 

"And  was  there  ever  a  truer  friend?  Tell  me,  ye 
who  live  in  the  high  places  of  the  earth,  and  the 
poor  who  last  night,  while  his  body  lay  in  state, 
wept  over  this  casket!  There  is  hardly  any  one 
here  to  whom  he  has  not  done  a  kindness. 

"Did  he  not  speak  for  you  a  good  word  or  write 
a  generous  commendation  or  give  you  the  smile  of 
encouragement  in  some  exigency?  How  many 
people  he  helped;  how  many  perplexities  he  dis 
entangled ;  how  many  bright  utterances  he  strewed 
in  the  pathway  of  others,  no  one  can  remember 
save  God  who  remembers  all. 

"Firm  as  a  rock,  brilliant  as  a  star,  artless  as  a 
child,  pure  as  a  woman.  God  endowed  him  for  a 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  271 

good  purpose  with  a  resiliency  of  wit,  a  faculty  of 
impersonation,  and  an  irresistible  mimicry  and  a 
dramatic  power  that  were  inexhaustible.  How 
much  the  world  owes  to  such  a  nature  we  can  not 
tell.  It  is  often  a  greater  good  to  cause  a  laugh 
than  to  start  a  tear.  We  all  cry  enough,  God 
knows,  and  have  enough  to  cry  about,  and  we  need 
no  impulse  in  that  direction.  But  he  who  can 
scatter  our  gloom  by  innocent  merriment  has  been 
to  us  an  emancipator.  Solomon  was  right  when  he 
said,  "A  merry  heart  doeth  good  like  a  medicine." 
Wit  is  of  two  kinds,  that  which  stings  and  galls 
and  angers  and  makes  the  eye  flash  and  the  heart 
burn;  the  other  is  that  which  illumines,  sets  free, 
strengthens  for  another  contest,  puts  us  in  good 
humor  with  the  world  and  makes  us  renounce  our 
follies.  The  one  kind  of  wit  is  the  lightning  that 
rives,  but  the  other  is  the  dew  that  refreshes.  Of 
that  last  kind  was  the  wit  of  our  departed  friend. 
"He  never  laughed  at  anything  except  that 
which  ought  to  be  laughed  at.  There  were  in  it  no 
innuendos  that  tipped  both  ways;  nothing  viper- 
ine;  nothing  that  would  have  been  discordant  to 
recall  if  he  had  died  the  next  hour.  Prince  of  in 
nocent  pleasantry,  sanctified  reparteeist,  our 
friend  shall  live  in  our  memories  like  a  sweet  song 
too  soon  closed,  like  a  banquet  too  soon  ended,  like 
a  picture  over  which  too  soon  the  veil  has 
dropped." 

On  October  10,  just  a  month  from  the  date  of 
his  death,  the  great  hall  of  Cooper  Union,  New 
York,  was  filled  with  citizens  of  the  metropolis, 
gathered  to  do  honor  to  the  memory  of  Samuel 
Sullivan  Cox.  The  meeting  was  under  the  auspices 


272  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

of  the  Sleekier  Association,  before  which  body,  it 
will  be  remembered,  Mr.  Cox  had  engaged  to  de 
liver  an  address  on  "Wonderland"  at  the  very 
hour  of  his  death.  Julius  Harburger,  president 
of  the  Steckler  Association,  called  the  great  me- 
*aorial  meeting  to  order,  and  on  his  motion  Hon. 
Grover  Cleveland,  ex-President  of  the  United 
Staites,  was  chosen  to  preside.  The  ex-President, 
on  taking  the  chair,  paid  an  appreciative  tribute 
to  the  character  and  services  of  the  deceased,  who 
had,  he  said,  "exhibited  to  the  entire  country  the 
strength  and  the  brightness  of  true  American 
statesmanship."  The  chief  address  was  given  by 
Hon.  J.  Proctor  Knott,  of  Kentucky,  long  associ 
ated  with  Mr.  Cox  in  Congress.  "The  name  of  no 
man,"  said  Mr.  Knott,  "was  ever  more  widely 
known  or  more  lovingly  revered  among  his  coun 
trymen  than  his.  It  has  been  heard  wherever  the 
language  of  civilized  men  is  spoken.  There  is 
scarcely  a  home  in  all  this  wide  and  wondrous 
land,  whether  amid  the  busy  haunts  of  the  crowd 
ed  city  or  in  the  solitudes  of  the  far-off  mountains, 
in  which  it  is  not  a  familiar  household  word." 
Mr.  Knott's  review  of  the  memorable  career  of  his 
late  associate  in  Congress,  was  singularly  elo 
quent,  analytical  and  to  the  last  degree  just. 

Congress  paid  notable  tribute  to  Mr.  Cox's  mem 
ory.  Formal  announcement  of  his  deafth  was 
made  to  the  House  by  Representative  Amos  J. 
Cummings,  on  the  18th  of  December,  and  a  resolu 
tion  was  adopted  expressive  of  the  "deep  regret 
and  profound  sorrow"  with  which  the  intelligence 
was  received.  As  a  further  mark  of  respect  the 
House  at  once  adjourned.  Saturday,  April  19, 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  273 

1890,  was  set  apart  for  paying  tribute  to  the  mem 
ory  of  the  deceased  statesman.  On  like  occasions 
the  galleries  and  floors  of  Congress  ordinarily  pre 
sent  a  beggarly  array  of  empity  benches.  But  on 
this  day  there  were  no  vacant  seats.  The  public 
anticipation  that  this  was  to  be  no  idle  formality 
but  a  heartfelt  "recognition  of  eminent  abilities 
as  a  distinguished  public  servant" — in  the  words 
of  the  resolution  adopted — was  realized.  The  eul 
ogies  that  came  from  the  lips  of  the  most  distin 
guished  members  of  both  political  par 
ties,  were  earnest  and  eloquent  to  a 
degree  never  surpassed  in  that  historic 
chamber.  Representative  Cummings,  who  gave  a 
most  interesting  and  appreciative  review  of  Mr. 
Cox's  eminent  career,  was  followed  by  Gen.  Banks, 
of  Massachusetts;  Eoger  Q.  Mills,  of  Texas;  Ben 
Butterworth,  of  Ohio;  Col  Breckenridge,  of  Ken 
tucky;  Richard  P.  Bland,  of  Missouri;  Buckalew, 
of  Pennsylvania;  Benton  H.  McMillan,  of  Tennes 
see;  Col.  Grosvenor,  of  Ohio;  Outhwaithe,  of  Ohio; 
Lawler,  of  Illinois;  Dunnell,  of  Minnesota;  Me- 
Adoo,  of  New  Jersey;  Chipman,  of  Michigan;  Cov 
ert,  of  New  York;  Stone,  of  Missouri;  O'Donnell, 
of  Michigan;  Carruth,  of  Kentucky;  Washington, 
of  Tennessee;  Maish,  of  Pennsylvania;  "Fighting 
Jo"  Wheeler,  of  Alabama;  Yoder,  of  Ohio;  Quinn, 
of  New  York;  McClammy,  of  North  Carolina;  Tur 
ner,  of  New  York;  Hansbrough,  of  North  Dakota; 
McCarthy,  of  New  York;  Sherman,  of  New  York; 
Morrow,  of  Calif orna;  and  Geisshamer,  of  New 
Jersey.  Together  these  tributes  constitute  a  not 
able  volume. 

Memorial  day  in  the  Senate  was  July  8,  1890. 


274  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

The  resolutions  of  the  House  having  been  report 
ed,  Senator  Hiscock,  of  New  York,  offered  resolu 
tions  which  were  adopted,  expressive  of  the  Sen 
ate's  "profound  sorrow,"  and  suspending  business 
to  give  opportunity  for  "fitting  tributes  to  the 
memory  of  the  deceased,  and  to  his  eminent  public 
and  private  virtues."  Eulogies  no  less  earnest 
and  eloquent  than  those  which  fell  from  the  lips  of 
the  deceased  statesman's  own  colleagues,  of  the 
House,  were  made,  to  a  full  Senate  and  overflow 
ing  galleries,  by  Senators  Hiscock  and  Evarts,  of 
New  York;  Voorhees,  of  Indiana;  Sherman,  of 
Ohio;  Vest,  of  Missouri;  and  Dixon,  of  Khode 
Island. 

All  concurred  in  recognizing  the  super-eminence 
of  his  ability  as  an  orator  and  statesman,  his  mas 
terly  grasp  of  all  public  questions,  and  his  invalu 
able  services  to  his  country.  With  the  Reverend 
Doctor  Talmage,  they  said:  "We  shall  not  see  his 
like  again.  Without  a  predecessor,  he  will  be 
without  a  successor."  This,  we  believe,  is  likely 
to  stand  as  the  judgment  of  history. 


APPENDIX. 


Laws  Affecting  Letter  Carriers    Enacted  through 
Efforts  of  S.  S.  Cox. 


THE   ANNUAL  VACATION  LAW. 

Chap.  126.  An  Act  to  grant  letter  carriers  at 
free  delivery  offices  fifteen  days  leave  of  absence 
in  each  year. 

Be  it  enacted,  etc.  That  all  letter  carriers  at  free 
delivery  offices  shall  be  entitled  to  leave  of  absence 
not  to  exceed  fifteen  days  in  each  year,  without 
loss  of  pay;  and  the  Postmaster  General  is  hereby 
authorized  to  employ,  when  necessary,  during  the 
time  such  leave  of  absence  is  granted,  such  num 
ber  of  substitute-cariers  as  may  be  deemed  advis 
able,  who  shall  be  paid  for  services  rendered  at  the 
rate  of  six  hundred  dollars  per  annum. 
[June  27,  1884.] 

THE  " FIXED  SALARY"  LAW. 

Chap.  14.  An  Act  to  extend  the  free  delivery 
system  of  the  Postoffice  Department,  and  for  other 
purposes. 

Be  it  enacted,  etc.  That  letter  carriers  shall  be 
employed  for  the  free  delivery  of  mail  matter,  as 


276  SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX 

frequently  as  the  public  business  may  require,  at 
every  incorporated  city,  village,  or  borough  con 
taining  a  population  of  fifty  'thousand  within  its 
corporate  limits,  and  may  be  so  employed  at  every 
place  containing  a  population  of  not  less  than  ten 
thousand,  within  its  corporate  limits,  according  to 
the  last  general  census,  taken  by  authority  of 
State  or  United  States  law,  or  at  any  postoffice 
which  produced  a  gross  revenue,  for  the  preceding 
fiscal  year,  of  not  less  than  ten  thousand  dollars: 

Provided,  this  act  shall  not  affect  the  existence 
of  the  free  delivery  in  places  where  it  is  now  estab 
lished.  And  provided  further, 

That  in  offices  where  the  free  delivery  shall  be 
established  under  the  provisions  of  this  act,  such 
free  delivery  shall  not  be  abolished  by  reason  of 
decrease  below  ten  thousand  in  population  or  ten 
thousand  dollars  in  gross  postal  revenue,  except  in 
the  discretion  of  the  Postmaster  General. 

Sec.  2.  That  there  may  be  in  all  cities  which 
contain  a  population  of  seventy-five  thousand  or 
more  three  classes  of  letter  carriers,  as  follows: 
Carriers  of  the  first  class,  whose  salaries  shall  be 
one  thousand  dollars  per  annum;  of  the  second 
class,  whose  salaries  shall  be  eight  hundred  dol 
lars  per  annum,  and  of  the  third  class,  whose  sal 
aries  shall  be  six  hundred  dollars  per  annum. 

Sec.  3.  That  in  places  containing  a  population 
of  less  than  seventy-five  'thousand  there  may  be 
two  classes  of  letter  carriers,  as  follows:  Carriers 
of  the  second  class,  whose  salaries  shall  be  eight 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  per  annum,  and  of  the 
third  class,  whose  salaries  shall  be  six  hundred 
dollars  per  annum. 


GEO.  T.  ESTES,  LYNN,  MASS. 
Oldest  Letter  Carrier  (from  1864)  in  the  Service. 


SAMUEL  SULLIVAN  COX  277 

Sec.  4.  That  all  laws  inconsistent  herewith  are 
hereby  repealed. 

[January  3,  1887.] 

THE 

Chap.  308.  An  Act  to  limit  the  hours  that  letter 
carriers  in  cities  shall  be  employed  per  day. 

Be  it  enacted,  etc.  That  hereafter  eight  hours 
shall  constitute  a  day's  work  for  the  letter  carriers 
in  cities  or  postal  districts  connected  therewith, 
for  which  they  shall  receive  the  same  pay  as  is  now 
paid  as  for  a  day's  work  of  a  greater  number  of 
hours.  If  any  letter  carrier  is  employed  a  greater 
number  of  hours  per  day  than  eight  he  shall  be 
paid  extra  for  the  same  in  proportion  to  the  salary 
now  fixed  by  law. 

[May  28,  1888.] 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Ancestry 9 

Boyhood 29 

College  Life 40 

Choosing  a  Career 61 

His  Marriage  and  Trip  to  Europe 67 

As  An  Editor TO 

Enters  the  Arena  of  Politics 7G 

Elected  to  Congress 78 

Eight  Years  an  Ohio  Representative 80 

Removal  to  New  York 96 

Returns  to  Congress 98 

Race  for  Congressman-at-large 102 

Spurns  the  "Back  Pay" 106 

Again  Returns  to  Congress 108 

From  North  Cape  to  the  Pyramids 114 

Again  at  His  Post 126 

As  Minister  to  Turkey 128 

A  Retrospect 153 

Mr.  Cox  and  the  Electoral  Commission 159 

"Free  Cuba" 163 

Our  Debt  to  Ireland 172 

The  Persecuted  Jews 177 

Champion  of  American  Commerce 181 

"The  Letter  Carriers'  Friend". .  .185 


280  CONTENTS. 

Father  of  the  Life-Saving  Service 201 

^Four  New  Stars" 217 

Old  Campaigning  Days  in  Ohio 223 

Member  of  the  Cobden  Club 226 

A  Disciple  of  Izaak  Walton 232 

"Man  of  Wit  and  Wisdom" 234 

As  an  Author  and  Traveler 249 

His  Death  and  Burial 264 

Appendix:  "Letter  Carrier"  Laws 275 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


FACING 

Samuel  Sullivan  Cox,  frontispiece.  PAGE 

General  James  Cox 10 

"Box  Grove" 16 

Judge  and  Mrs.  Samuel  Sullivan 22 

Maria  Matilda  Sullivan  Cox 26 

Cox's  Boyhood  Home 30 

Muskingum  Court  House 34 

E.  T.  Cox,  wife  and  ten  children 38 

First  paper  mill  West  of  Alleganies 46 

Buckingham  Mansion,  Zanesville 66 

Cox's  first  Columbus  residence 74 

Dr.  Henry  Bennett  in  his  garden,  Men  tone.  ...   98 

North  Cape  group . 114 

U.  S.  Legation  on  the  Bosphorus 134 

Mehemet,  Cox's  Turkish  guard 138 

Nile  party,  a  cosmopolitan  group 142 

Decorations  conferred  by  theSultan 146 

Five  photographs  at  different  periods 156 

Little  Ethel  Sullivan 186 

Cox  statue,  Astor  Place 192 

Group  of  Officers,  N.  A.  L.  C 194 

A  Life  Saving  Station 202 

Vase  presented  to  Mrs.  Cox 210 

Supt  Kimball  of  Life-Saving  service 214 

Cox's  Washington  residence 236 

His  New  York  residence 266 

His  tomb 274 

Oldest  Letter  Carrier Appendix 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 
LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


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